Byte Magazine Volume 11 Number 02: Text Processing

FEBRUARY 1986 VOL.11, NO. 2

$3.50 IN UNITED STATES

$4.25 IN CANADA / £2.10 IN U.K.

" MCGRAW-HILL PUBLICATION

0360-5280

TURBO "NEW" PACK $95.00

You get both our terrific new Turbos, and pay
only $47.50 each. Sold separately, they're $69 95
each.

Turbo Editor Toolbox

10t

TURBO HOLIDAY PACK $125.00

At about a 30% savings, you get our standard
holiday special.

Ttirbo Tutor®
Turbo DataBase Tool

SAVE OVER 30% ON OUR GIFT PACKS!

Announcing Borland's New
Turbo Editor Toolbox™ $69.95

IT'S ALL YOU NEED TO BUILD YOUR OWN WORD PROCESSOR
FOR ONLY $69.95!

, See the order form at

right.

Turbo Pascal and lurbo lutor are registered trademarks and Tbrbo DataBase
Toolbox, T\irbo Graphix 'Icebox, Turbo Editor Toolbox, Turbo GameWorks.
and MicroStar are trademarks of Borland International, Inc WordStar \s a
trademark of MicroPro International Corp. Multi-Male is a trademark of Mul-
timate International Corp Microsoft Is a registered trademark and Word is a
trademark of Microsoft Corp WordPerfect ts a trademark of Satellite Software
International

You get all the modules you need to build your
own word processor.

• You get ready-to-compile source code.

• You get a full-featured WordStar™-like
word processor, we call it MicroStar™
You get a 200-page manual that tells

• you how to integrate the editor proce-
dures and functions into your programs.

You can use Turbo Editor Toolbox "as is" or
modify it any way you want.

And you don't get a bill for Royalties.
Because Borland doesn't believe you should pay
for something more than once.

All this and more for only $69-95.

And until March 1, 1986 you can get Bor-
land's new Turbo Editor Toolbox for even less!
(Only $47.50 when you buy the special Turbo
New Pack.)

YOU CAN HAVE MANY WINDOWS ON
THE WORLD. The new Turbo Editor Toolbox
features windowing, a technique that lets you
see several documents — or several parts of the
same document — at once. You know best what
your needs are. Turbo Editor Toolbox lets you
open the windows you want. And to make
those windows part of your program.

WITH TURBO EDITOR TOOLBOX YOU
CAN HAVE THE BEST OF ALL WORD
PROCESSORS IN YOUR WORD PRO-
CESSOR. You can make WordStar behave
like Multi-Mate. Support windows just like
Microsoft's® Word™ And do it as fast as
WordPerfect does it Incorporate your new
"hybrids" into your programs to achieve
incredible control and power.

Turbo Editor Toolbox. It's the kind of tool
that almost everyone needs — and we're the
kind of company to give it to you at a reasona-
ble price, without any compromise on quality.
(We're so sure you'll be satisfied that we offer a
60-day money-back guarantee — something no
one else does.)

THE CRITICS' CHOICE

"Turbo Pascal has got to be the best value in.lan-
■) guages on the market today— and Borland interna-
tional, by delivering excellent products at reasona-
ble costs, is leading the software industry where it
has to go, Turbo Pascal is more than just a good
program at a low cost It's also a low-cost, well-
conceived programming language making it possi-
ble for lots of people to produce good programs."
Jerry Pournelle, BYTE

"This compiler, produced by Borland International,
is one of the best programming tools presently
available for the PC"

Michael Covington, PC Tech Journal

"Language deal of the century... Turbo Pascal."
Jeff Duntemann, PC Magazine

BORLAND

INTERNA T I N A L

Three
Special

Gift Packs

60-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE

Introducing Borland's New
Turbo GameWorks" $69.95

THE GAMES YOU CAN PLAY, REPLAY, REVISE AND REWRITE BUT

CANNOT RESIST.

(Turbo Pascal Source Code included!)

TURBO HOLIDAY
JUMBO PACK

We give you the source code, the manual,
the diskettes, the 60-day guarantee and the
competitive edge. Let the games begin. Chess.
Bridge. Go-Moku.

State-of-the art games that let you be player,
referee, and rules committee— because you
have the Turbo Pascal source code. Which
means that you can play a game or create a
game, any time and any way you want

Borland's new Turbo GameWorks lets you
combine gamesmanship with craftsmanship.
Discover the secret techniques and moves used
by the Old Masters. Leam exactly how state-of-
the-art computer games are made — so you can
go off and make your own. Since you have the
source code, you can always change the game.
Or rig the game, if no one's looking.
Pure Magic. That's Turbo GameWorks. And part
of the "sourcery" — Turbo GameWorks is only
$69-95. When combined with our new Turbo
Editor Toolbox in the Turbo New Pack, it's
only $47.50...

SHORT CUTS, SECRETS AND
STRATEGIES. The Turbo GameWorks man-
ual takes you step-by-step through all the
games. How to play them. How to modify
them. How to use the power of Turbo Pascal to
write new games.

You'll learn general problem analysis, how
to identify all possible moves, "rule of thumb"
strategies, procedures for testing strategies, and
ways to rate options. You'll also be introduced
to "top down" program design, the develop-
ment of basic algorithms, the use of constants
and data structures and ways to design short
cuts with incremental updating.

On top of all that, you'll have a lot of fan
(if you want to).

So go to play (and work) with Borland's
new Turbo GameWorks. it's unique, it's fasci-
nating. And it's brand-new. Be first with the
latest and greatest—order your Turbo Game-
Works today.

4585 SCOTTS VALLEY DRIVE, SCOTTS VALLEY, It
CA 95066 PHONE (408) 438-8400 TELEX 1723/3-

BORLAND'S TURBO GAMEWORKS AND
SOME OF ITS MASTER PIECES
ChBSS, the ultimate strategic game. A game
so old that no one knows its exact origins.
Turbo GameWorks lets you play chess at six dif-
ferent levels from the beginner to the sophisti-
cated user And you have many ways |of playing
with your Turbo GameWorks. Let the computer
solve checkmate problems. Set the time limit
for each game. And there's more.

Decide whether you or the computer "goes
first" Trade places with the computer at any
point in the game. It's all possible with Game-
Works.

Go-Mokll, also known as "Five-in-Line, " is a
very old Japanese game played on a board of
squares. The first player to get five game pieces
in a row— either horizontally, vertically, or
diagonally — wins the game.

It's an intriguing game. But you're not
limited to playing it one way. With Turbo
GameWorks; you can modify it your way

Bridge. Play bridge with a friend or team up
against the program — you decide which hands
the computer plays. You can even decide to let
the program cheat! The program automatically
bids and plays its own hands. And, since you
can tinker with the source code, you can make
"your" Bridge unlike any other.

Now you get the whole Turbo Pascal family,
including its newest members, at an incredible
price.

-' ffl£o ! K combines an integrated
programming environment with the fastest
Pascal compiler in the galaxy.

O ! I;V teaches you step-by-step how to

use the Turbo Pascal development environ-
ment With commented source code for all
program examples on diskette.

^^^^^^^R gives you all the

ils you need to sort and search your data
and build powerful database applications.

gives you a com-
:te library of Pascal procedures to build
applications using high resolution graphics
and graphics window management.

iiiith ; » •' — Chess, Bridge, Go-Moku.
Secrets and strategies of state-of-the-art com-
puter games are revealed with complete
source code.

— die Pascal modules
t let you build your own word processor. A
full-featured WordStar-like program, Micro-
Star™, is included on your disk

You're getting everything at only $40 each. And
if you already own one or several members of
the Turbo family, be creative — nothing can stop
you from buying the Jumbo Pack, picking out
the ones you already have and giving them as
holiday gifts for family or friends. At these pri-
ces you can afford to give to others and to
yourself.

S,ea, b e t .-SSca«.800)^

1
1

^rks incite a " up 2!?BCD
Mine is:

Inquiry 40 for End-Users. Inquiry 4! for DEALERS ONLY.

With
Dazzling
Discounts!

. Turb o Holiday JumboP
» T urbo Holiday Pa CK
•Turbo New Pa<*

Pascal

Pascal w/8087

Pascal WBCD

Pascal w/8087 and BCD

Turbo DataBase
Turbo G'aPhix
Turbo Tutor
Turbo Editor
Turbo GameWorks

Tbese ffi ^ e ^f0P.P f o-

Am oun<:fCAadd6*^-

Payment:
c ,e*Carde*P**;°'

Cardff
payment oy "° ^ ^ ^m

copy®

H 1985

CONTENTS

-^^^mffwmf

i i

; ^'K ?;t':-:/

! -ai

82

166

FEATURES

Introduction 82

Ciarcias Circuit Cellar: Build an Audio-and-Video Multiplexer

by Steve Garcia 84

With AVMUX. Steve is well on his way to an automated switching system.

Programming Project: A SIMPL Compiler. Part 3: Extensions

by \onathan Amsterdam 102

This particular project concludes with a look at the design choices involved.

Introduction to the Amiga ROM Kernel by Robert I. Mical 116

Procedures and functions are useful but can be difficult to compile.

Visual Programming by Raph levien 135

Visual Syntax is an editor for LISP that displays programs as pictures.

Programming Insight Molecules in Color by \ohn J Farrell 149

COLOR3D.BAS is a BASIC program for the IBM PC that displays molecules on
an RGB monitor.

Programming Insight Badfile: CP/M System Programming in C

by Louis Baker 157

This utility supplies the names and locations of files containing bad sectors or tracks.

THEME: TEXT PROCESSING

Introduction 166

Computer Science Considerations

conducted by G. Michael Vose and Gregg Williams 169

Donald Knuth speaks on his involvement with digital typography.

Processing Strings in SNOBOL4 by lames F. Gimpel . . . 175

This article presents examples of the language's pattern-matching capabilities.

Interpretation of Natural Language

by \ordan Pollack and David L Waltz 189

The authors suggest a potential application of parallelism.

Typesetting Problem Scripts by Pierre A. MacKay 201

Computer typesetting provides a solution for Arabic and similar scripts.

Poetry Processing by Michael Newman 221

The concept of artistic freedom takes on new meaning when text processing handles
the mundane tasks of prosody.

The Literary Detective by }im Tankard , 231

Use your computer to identify an unknown author.

Keyboard Efficiency by Donald W. Olson and Laurie E. }asinski 241

Is the Dvorak layout worth learning?

REVIEWS

Introduction 248

Reviewers Notebook by Glenn Hartwig 251

BYTE ilSSN 0360-52801 is published monthly with one extra issue per year by McGraw-Hill I nc Founder lames H McGraw ii860-l<M8i Executive editorial
circulation, and advertising offices 70 Main St.. Peterborough. NH 03458 phone 16031 924-928) Office hours Mon-Thur 8 30 AM - 4 30 PM Fnda>
8 30 AM - I 00 PM. Eastern Time Address subscriptions to BYTE Subscriptions. POB 590. Martinsville. Nl 08836 Postmaster send address changes
USPS Form 3579. undeliverable copies, and fulfillment questions to BYTE Subscriptions. POB 596. Martinsville. Nl 08836 Second-class postage paid
at Peterborough, NH 03458 and additional mailing offices Postage paid at Winnipeg. Manitoba Registration number 9321 Subscriptions are S2! for
one year. S38 for two years, and S5 5 for three years in the USA and its possessions In Canada and Mexico. S2 3 for one year S42 for two years $61
for three years S69 for one year air delivery to Europe. 17.100 yen for one year surface delivery to lapan S37 surface delivery elsewhere Air delivery
to selected areas at additional rates upon request Single copy price is S3 50 in the USA and its possessions. S3 95 in Canada and Mexico S4 50 in
Europe, and $5 elsewhere Foreign subscriptions and sales should be remitted in United States funds drawn on a US bank Please allow six to eight
weeks for delivery of first issue, Printed in the United States of America

2 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

COVER PAINTING BY ROBERT TINNEY

VOLUME II. NUMBER 2, 1986

The Motorola VME/10 by Robert E. Robinson 111 253

A modular multiuser system.

MacCharlie by \sxrry Crockett 262

Dayna's bridge between the Macintosh and the IBM PC.

Lattice's 8086/8088 C Compiler by Dayle S VJoolston . . 273

Release 2.15 features new math libraries.

Turbo Pascal 3.0 by Mark Bridger 281

An update on Borland's compiler.

Review Feedback 287

Readers respond to previous reviews.

KERNEL

Introduction 288

Computing at Chaos Manor: Communicating by \erry Pournelle 291

lerry finds that the hectic pace of his life is normal and pushes on.

Chaos Manor Mail conducted by lerry Pournelle 315

Jerry's readers write, and he replies.

BYTE Japan: Highlights of Two Shows by William M. Raike 317

Bill reports on many of the new products he found of interest at Japan's 1985 Software
Show and Data Show.

BYTE U.K.: Tripos-The Roars of AmigaDOS by Dick Pountain 321

This month Dick takes a look at the Amiga's operating system
and its origins in Cambridge, England.

According to Webster: Programming Tools and the Atari 520ST

by Bruce Webster 331

A follow-up package for Turbo Pascal owners is Bruce's product of the month.

Circuit Cellar Feedback conducted by Steve Garcia 346

Steve answers project-related queries from readers.

248

Editorial:
The Best of BIX Comes to BYTE 6

MlCROBYTES 9

Letters 14

Fixes and Updates 33

Whats New 37, 395

Ask BYTE 44

Clubs and Newsletters 54

Book Reviews 57

Event Queue 78

Disks and Downloads 350

Best of BIX 363

Unclassified Ads 453

BYTE's Ongoing Monitor Box.
BOMB Results 454

Reader Service 455

288

Address all editorial correspondence to the Editor. BYTE. POB 372. Hancock. NH 03449. Unacceptable manuscripts will be returned if accompanied
by sufficient first-class postage. Not responsible for lost manuscripts or photos. Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of BYTE.

Copyright© 1986 by McGraw-Hill Inc. All rights reserved. Trademark registered in the United States Patent and "Trademark Office. Where necessary,
permission is granted by the copyright owner for libraries and others registered with the Copyright Clearance Center {CCQ to photocopy any article
herein for the flat fee of SI. 50 per copy of the article or any part thereof. Correspondence and payment should be sent directly to the CCC 29 Congress
St.. Salem. MA 01970. Specify ISSN 0360-5280/83. SI. 50. Copying done for other than personal or internal reference use without the permis-
sion of McGraw-Hill Inc. is prohibited. Requests for special permission or bulk orders should be addressed to the publisher. BYTE is available
in microform from University Microfilms International. 300 North Zeeb Rd„ Dept. PR. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 or 18 Bedford Row. Dept. PR,
london WCIR 4 El England
Subscription questions or problems should be addressed to: BYTE Subscriber Service, POB 328, Hancock, NH 03449

SECTION ART BY JAMES ENDICOTT

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 3

Inquiry 165

BEAUTIFUL
GRAPHICS

Personal Graphics System II

$7995«»

Beautiful computer graphics are now
affordable with lnovion's Personal
Graphic System II. With PGS II you can
digitize any video image or create your
own with the click of a mouse. It's
ideal for color mock-ups, slide
presentations, business graphics, and
more. With PGS II you'll enjoy the
speed, flexibility, and productivity of
a sophisticated graphics computer,
at a price you can afford.

PGS II Features

2.1 million colors
250,000 colors displayable

• Elaborate paint system

• 19 inch color monitor

• Optical mouse

• Optional stylus and tablet

• Optional film recorder and color printer

• NTSC input. NTSC and RGB output

• 24 bits per pixel

• 512 x 483 pixel display

IN#VION

250 East Gentile Street
Layton, Utah 84041
Call (801) 546-2850

>-L£

BYTE

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Philip Lemmons

MANAGING EDITOR. PRINT

Gene Smarte
managing editor,

ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING AND COMMUNICATIONS

George Bond

CONSULTING EDITORS

Steve Garcia
Jerry Pournelle
Bruce Webster

SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITORS

G. Michael Vose. Themes
Gregg Williams
technical editors

Dennis Allen
Thomas R. Clune
Ion R. Edwards
Richard Grehan
Glenn Hartwig. Reviews
Ken Sheldon
Iane Morrill Tazelaar
Tom Thompson
Charles D. Weston
Eva White
Stanley Wszola

ASSOCIATE TECHNICAL EDITORS

Margaret Cook Gurney
Donna Osgood. San Francisco
NEWS AND TECHNOLOGY
Ezra Shapiro. Bureau Chief. San Francisco
Rich Malloy, Senior Technical Editor. New York
Phillip Robinson. Senior Technical Editor. Palo Alto
Tony Lockwood. Senior News Editor. Peterborough
ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITORS

Dennis Barker. Peterborough
Cathryn Baskin. Peterborough
Brenda McLaughlin, San Francisco
Lynne M. Nadeau. Peterborough

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Jonathan Amsterdam, programming projects

David Betz. programming

Mark Haas, at large

Rik Iadrnicek, CAD. graphics, spreadsheets

Robert T. Kurosaka. mathematical recreations

Alastair |. W. Mayer, software

Alan Miller, languages and engineering

Dick Pountain. U.K.

William M. Raike. \apan

Perry Saidman. computers and law

Robert Sterne, computers and law

COPY EDITORS

Bud Sadler. Chief
Elizabeth Cooper
Faith Hanson
Nancy Hayes
Cathy Kingery
Anne Fischer Lent
Paula Noonan

|OAN VlGNEAU ROY

Warren Williamson

assistants

Peggy Dunham. 0//ice Marnier
Martha Hicks
Iune N. Sheldon
Iudy Winkler

ART

Rosslyn A. Frick. Art Director
Nancy Rice. Associate Art Director
Ian Muller. Art Assistant
Alan Easton. Drafting

PRODUCTION

David R. Anderson. Production Director
Denise Chartrand
Michael ]. Lonsky
Virginia Reardon

TYPOGRAPHY

Sherry McCarthy, Chief Typographer
Len Lorette
Donna Sweeney

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER

Harry L. Brown
publishers assistant

Beverly Iackson

PERSONNEL

Cheryl Hurd. 0//ice Manner
Patricia Burke. Personnel Coordinator

ADVERTISING SALES

Dennis |. Riley. Director of Sales and Marketing
Sandra Foster. Administrative Assistant
ADVERTISING/PRODUCTION (603-924-6448)

Lisa Wozmak. Supervisor

Robert D. Hannings. Senior Account Coordinator

Marion Carlson

Karen Cilley

Lyda Clark

Michele Iackson

Denise Proctor

Wai Chiu Li. Quality Control Manager

Iulie Nelson. Advertising/Production Coordinator

CIRCULATION (800-258-5485)

Gregory Spitzfaden. Director

Andrew Jackson, Subscriptions Manager

Cathy A. Rutherford. Assistant Manager

Laurie Seamans. Assistant Manager

Susan Boyd

Phil Dechert

Mary Emerson

Louise Menegus

Agnes E Perry

Jennifer Price

Iames Bingham. Single-Copy Safes Manager

Claudette Carswell

Karen Desroches

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Horace T. Howland, Director (603-924-3424)

Vicki Reynolds. Marketing Production Manner

Lisa |o Steiner, Marketing Assistant

Stephanie Warnesky. Marketing Art Director

Sharon Price. Assistant Art Director

Doug Webster. Director of Public Relations (603-924-9027)

Wilbur S. Watson. Operations Manager. Exhibits

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

Michele P. Verville. Manager

Patricia Akerley. Research Manager

Cynthia Damato Sands. Reader Service Coordinator

Faith Kluntz, Copyrights Coordinator

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Philip L Penny. Director of Finance and Services

Kenneth A, King, Business Manager

Christine Lee, Assistant

Vicki Weston, Accounting Manager

Linda Short, D/P Manager

Edson Ware, Credit

Marilyn Haigh

Diane Henry

Vern Rockwell

IoAnn Walter

BUILDING SERVICES/TRAFFIC

Anthony Bennett Building Services Manager
Brian Higgins
Mark Monkton

receptionist

L Ryan McCombs

SB

Officers of McGraw-Hill Information Systems Company: Presi-
dent: Richard B Miller Executive Vice Presidents: Frederick P.
lannott. Construction Information Group: Russell C. White. Com-
puters and Communications Information Group, I Thomas Ryan.
Marketing and International. Senior Vice Presidents: Francis A. Shinal. Con-
troller: Robert C Viotelte. Manufacturing and Technology Senior Vice
Presidents and Publishers Laurence Altman, Electronics Week; Harry L
Brown, BYTE; David J. McGrath, Construction Publications Group Vice Presi-
dent; Peter B. McCuen. Communications Information Vice President: Fred
O lensen. Planning and Development.

Officers of McGraw-Hill, Inc.: Harold W. McGraw. |r. Chairman; loseph
L. Dionne. President and Chief Executive Officer; Robert N. Landes. Ex-
ecutive Vice President and Secretary-Walter D. Serwatka. Executive Vice
President. Publishing Services; Shel F. Asen. Senior Vice President. Manufac-
turing; Ralph R. Schulz, Senior Vice President. Editorial: George R. Elsinger.
Vice President. Circulation. Ralph I, Webb. Vice President and Treasurer

Editorial and Business Office: 70 Main Street. Peterborough. New Hampshire 03458. (603) 924-9281.
West Coast Offices: McGraw-Hill. 42 5 Battery St. San Francisco. CA 941 1 1, (41 5| 362-4600.

McGraw-Hill. 1000 Elwell Court. Palo Alto. CA 94303, (4|5| 964-0624.
New York Editorial Office: 1221 Avenue of the Americas. New York. NY 10020. (2121 512-2000.

B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Circuit-Board-Artwork Software

Bfor the Design Engineer
£ in a Hurry Wm^

For only $895, smARTWORK® lets
the design engineer create and
revise printed-circuit-board art-
work on the IBM Personal Com-
puter. You keep complete control
over your circuit-board artwork —
from start to finish.

Forget the tedium of taping it
yourself or waiting for a tech-
nician, draftsman, or the CAD
department to get to your project.

smARTWORK® is the only low-
cost printed-circuit-board artwork
editor with all these advantages:

□ Complete interactive control
over placement and routing

□ Quick correction and revision
D Production-quality 2X artwork

from a pen-and-ink plotter

□ Prototype-quality 2X artwork
from a dot-matrix printer

□ Easy to learn and operate, yet
capable of sophisticated
layouts

□ Single-sided and double-sided
printed circuit boards up to

10 x 16 inches

D Multicolor or black-and-white
display

System Requirements:

□ IBM Personal Computer, XT, or
AT with 256K RAM, 2 disk drives,
and DOS Version 2.0 or later

□ IBM Color/Graphics Adapter
with RGB color or black-and-
white monitor

□ IBM Graphics Printer or Epson
FX/MX/RX series dot-matrix
printer

□ Houston Instrument DMP-41
pen-and-ink plotter

□ Optional Microsoft Mouse

The Smart Buy

At $895, smARTWORK® is proven,
convenient, fast, and a sound
value. Call us today And put it to
work for yourself next week.

mm m*

V J\ J LJLk J L J t-kj.i i

Wintek Corporation inquiry 358

1801 South Street
Lafayette, IN 47904-2993
Telephone: (317) 742-8428
Telex: 70-9079 WINTEK CORP UD

In Europe contact: RIVA Terminals Limited,
Woking, Surrey GU21 5JY ENGLAND,
Telephone: 04862-71001, Telex: 859502

"smARTWORK'.' "Wintek" and the Wintek logo are
registered trademarks of Wintek Corporation.

EDITORIAL

The Best of BIX
Comes to BYTE

BYTE's readers are always seeking to im-
prove the performance of their personal
computers— to expand the memory be-
yond its supposed limits, to speed up the
system clock, to reconfigure the RAM disk,
to pop in a more powerful CPU. BYTE's
readers are venturesome but not fool-
hardy. They know a lot themselves but will
listen to others who are knowledgeable
before proceeding with a radical alteration
of a computer system. But other knowl-
edgeable users aren't always handy

We've been fascinated in the early days
of the BYTE Information Exchange (BIX)
to see so many readers offering tips and
reporting results of various attempts to
enhance different kinds of computers.

Atari 520ST users, like Macintosh users,
encounter a hard limit on memory expan-
sion at 512 K bytes. But the BIX conference
on the 520ST gives detailed instructions
on expanding the 520ST's memory to I
megabyte. One pleasant surprise: the
operating system recognizes the addi-
tional memory.

Have you considered replacing the 8088
in your IBM PC or compatible with the
new NEC V20 chip to improve perfor-
mance? How much improvement could
you expect? Would there be technical side
effects? In the BIX conferences on IBM
PCs and compatibles, readers have al-
ready reported their results with IBM PCs
and machines made by Seequa. Sanyo,
Columbia, and others. Or how about re-
placing the crystal in your IBM PC AT to
make the system operate faster than its
usual 6 MHz? Would you see enhanced
performance or maddening glitches? AT
users discuss their results in the BIX con-
ference on the AT.

If you're installing RAM-disk software on
a Macintosh, is it best to use the RAM disk
for data, the application program, or the
System and Finder? What will future Mac-
intoshes be like and how can today's users
write software that will remain compati-
ble? In the BIX conference on the Macin-
tosh, expert users share their experience
on these and other topics.

The standard Commodore Amiga has
plenty of processing power, but some BIX
users have already replaced the 68000

with a 68010 or 68020. Moreover, there's
already a 68020 board for the Amiga and
the operating system has been revised for
upward compatibility to the more power-
ful chips. Amiga users also exchange tips
on how to select and install the best RGB
monitor for use with the Amiga. The Sony
KV-2 5XBR monitor comes in for high
praise. The BIX Amiga conference covers
these and other early experiments with
the Amiga.

To give you an idea of the sort of infor-
mation generated through BIX. we're in-
troducing a new BYTE section this month,
Called "Best of BIX." the section will in-
clude each month some of the most in-
teresting exchanges from BIX. It was hard
deciding which conferences of the more
than 100 on BIX to excerpt. There are
many conferences in BIX. including good
ones on the Apple II family. CP/M ma-
chines. LISP. C. Pascal, operating systems,
and other topics. But we've chosen ex-
amples from the conferences on the
Amiga, Atari. IBM PCs. and Macintosh be-
cause the interest of most BYTE readers
has shifted to 16-bit systems and because
these four conferences are among the
most lively in the system. We hope in the
future to broaden the scope of the Best
of BIX section. We would like to be able
to provide valuable information in BYTE
each month about the specific computers
owned by the preponderance of BYTE
readers. At the very least, we will continue
to include in Best of BIX some of the
highlights about Macintosh, the IBM PC
family and compatibles, the Commodore
Amiga, and the Atari 520ST.

For us. one of the chief attractions of BIX
is that there we can include coverage of
everything. We don't have to make pain-
ful decisions about which materials to
leave out each month. We can cover your
favorite machine, operating system, and
programming language. Another major at-
traction of BIX is the timeliness. BIX
members can read first-hand accounts of
programming and hardware wizardry only
minutes after they are entered.

We do realize that some readers don't
participate in telecommunications and
don't want to join BIX. The BYTE section
introduced this month is an attempt to
bring some of BlX's benefits to these

readers as well as to broaden the maga-
zine to include regular coverage of several
major machines.

How You Can Join BIX

After one month of commercial operation
and one mailing to 50.000 readers, BIX
had more than 1000 users with another
40 to 70 signing up each day. Refinements
of the software and installation of another
MC68000 (bringing the total to 15) im-
proved performance of the Arete com-
puter BIX runs on considerably over what
we saw during the test phase. The major
technical concern at the moment is UNIX's
limited number of i-nodes and the need
to supplement them with a database if the
user population continues to grow more
"rapidly than anticipated. UNIX wizards
with solutions to this problem should write
to Phil Lemmons or George Bond.

Reading more and more about BIX here
in the pages of BYTE you are no doubt
wondering how and when you can begin
using the system. To carefully manage our
growth, we're phasing in our promotion
of BIX to our readership. We began com-
mercial operation in November and
mailed information about BIX to one
group of subscribers, primarily in Boston.
Chicago. Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Now the rest of you can join us. and
literally within the next few minutes. More
information about BIX— including detailed
log-on instructions— is on page 246 and
247 of this issue.

If you can't join now but are interested
in BIX, circle number 4 50 on the reader
service card, and we'll keep you posted
as the system grows.

Some of you have asked whether you
can pay for BIX by means other than the
credit cards we now honor. We're actively
exploring other options and will let you
know both on line and in the pages of
BYTE as any new payment mechanisms
are implemented.

If you have any additional questions,
write to BIX. 70 Main St.. Peterborough.
NH 034 58. or call (603) 924-9281 ext. 131.
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.. weekdays, eastern
time. We look forward to seeing you soon
on BIX.

— Phil lemmons
Editor in Chief

B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Maxell Corp. of America, 60 Oxford Drive, Moonachie, NJ 07074

\

111

ifi'JI

tai

!■■■'■ 1

1 - 1

** <\ v : ^^

4

c r _ ,n«W ^|

V s^i

w /^

maxell

FLOPPY DISKS
THE GOLD STANDARD

. , Inquiry 210

SmarTerm 220 software makes
DEC terminals obsolete!

You don't need a DEC terminal to
access DEC'S new generation host
software. Now you can use your
IBM PC and SmarTerm 220 terminal
emulation software to access All in One,
A to Z, and other popular mainframe
software. SmarTerm 220 gives you
sophisticated, accurate DEC VT220,
VT100, VT102 and VT52 emulation,
and includes TTY mode to link you
to popular services like The Source,
CompuServe, Dow Jones, EASYLINK,
and Tymnet.

As you've learned to expect from
Persoft, the industry leader in software
terminal emulation, SmarTerm 220
continues the tradition of offering
"smart" software solutions where IBM
PC hardware limitations prevent exact
duplication of DEC terminal features.
For example, we give you horizontal
scrolling for 132-column text display,
and also support popular 132-column

video display boards. And we provide
"convenience" features not found in
other terminal emulation packages like:
"Branch to DOS" hot key, automatic
installation, color support, multiple
setups, "smart" softkeys, remappable
keyboard layouts, and online help
screens detailing PC and AT keyboard
mappings. Our unique support for
DEC'S popular EDT editor includes
convenient keyboard mapping of the
"GOLD" and PF function keys, as well
as an EDT specific on-line help screen,
and keytop chart.

International business people take note:
SmarTerm 220 fully supports European
versions of the DOS operating system,
8 bit mode, the VT220 multinational
character sets, and the compose key.

SmarTerm 220 is a powerful communi-
cations package as well, allowing text
and binary file transfer at speeds up
to 19,200 baud. In addition to the

popular XMODEM "error-free" protocol,
we include our own PDIP protocol and
supply you with free BASIC and
FORTRAN programs which implement
the protocol on VAX/VMS systems.

"Farm out" your obsolete DEC terminal,
and join the satisfied users who "reap"
the benefits of SmarTerm!

The SmarTerm family:

SmarTerm 220-DEC VT220

SmarTerm 100-DEC VT100

SmarTerm 125-DEC VT125

SmarTerm 400— Data General Dasher D400

SmarTerm 4014— Tektronix 4014

And now the new SmarTerm 240— DEC VT240

PUT YOUR DEC TERMINAL
OUT TO PASTURE!

After SmarTerm, what do you do with your obsolete terminal?

IDEA CREDIT: Ann Garner Riddle of Winston-Salem, N.C.

'SmarTerm is a registered trademark ol Persoft. Inc. 'PDIP is a trademark ol Persolt, Inc. 'DEC. VT. ReGIS. A to 2 and All in
One are trademarks ot Digital Equipment Corp. 'DASHER is a registered trademark ol Data General Corp. "Tektronix is a
registered trademark ol Tektronix. Inc. © Person. Inc. 1985. All rights reserved.

Persoft, Inc - 2740 Ski Lane - Madison, Wl 53713
(608) 273-6000 - Telex 759491

perso/r

Inquiry 256 for End-Users. Inquiry 2 57 for DEALERS ONLY.

MICROBYTES

Staff -written highlights of late developments in the microcomputer industry.

Atari's 1040ST. 1 Megabyte for Less Than $1000

The new 1040ST from Atari is a direct successor to the 520ST. but it has I megabyte of
RAM, an internal power supply, an internal RF modulator, and a built-in double-sided
3'/2-inch floppy-disk drive. Atari's computer dealers will offer a I040ST and a monochrome
monitor for $995. The TOS operating system has reached final form and will be in ROM in-
side both the 1040ST and the 520SI Any 520ST applications that follow TOS and GEM
rules will run on the I (MOST.

The 520ST will still be available, but it will be unbundled and sold as a mass-market item.
The new prices will be: 520ST. $299: single-sided disk drive, $199: double-sided disk drive,
$299; monochrome monitor, $199; color monitor, $399. A 20-megabyte hard-disk drive will
be sold for approximately $700.

Apple Adds a Plus to Both Macintosh and LaserWriter

Macintosh Plus has now joined the Macintosh family; LaserWriter Plus joined the LaserWriter
in a family of two. The Mac Plus doesn't have any expansion slots and still uses both the
9-inch 512- by 342-pixel screen and 7.8336-MHz 68000 processor. The pluses are I
megabyte of RAM, 128K bytes of ROM, an 800K-byte double-sided disk drive, an SCSI in-
terface, and a keyboard that includes a numeric keypad and cursor keys. The LaserWriter
Plus is faster than the LaserWriter and contains more built-in fonts within a full megabyte of
ROM. The RAM in the Mac Plus is contained in four socketed SIMMs (single in-line memory
modules), which are small boards with leads on only one side and 256K-bit surface-mount
DRAM chips soldered to the top. When 1-megabit surface-mount DRAMs are available, the
Mac Plus can be upgraded to 4 megabytes of RAM. The ROM contains a faster QuickDraw
and Finder 5.1 with the Hierarchical File System. Other changes include a RAM-disk utility
on the pull-down Control Panel. The SCSI interface allows easy connection to industry-
standard peripherals like hard disks. The 800K-byte disk drive is a half-height double-sided
version of the Fat Mac's Sony drive that is twice as fast. Macintosh Plus will not come
bundled with MacWrite and MacPaint.

Apple also announced that any Macintosh can be upgraded to the Mac Plus level. For
$299. you can buy a Disk Drive Kit with both an 800K-byte internal disk drive and the new
ROMs. For $599 (for Fat Mac owners) or $799 (for 128K-byte Mac owners and Fat Mac
owners with unofficial modifications to their machines), you can buy the Logic Board Kit
that contains the new digital board and a new rear housing. However, Logic Board Kit
buyers must also buy the Disk Drive Kit to get the new ROMs. For $129, you can buy the
new keyboard. To protect those who bought Fat Macs in the 60 days prior to the Mac Plus
announcement (November 18 to January 16), Apple is offering half-price Disk and Logic
upgrade kits. External 800K-byte disk drives will be sold for $499. All of the upgrade prices
include the dealer's installation fee.

The LaserWriter Plus carries a $6798 price tag. The $5999 LaserWriter can be transformed
into a LaserWriter Plus with the addition of a $799 Font Kit.

Page Scanner for the IBM PG

As evidence of the burgeoning interest in scanning and OCR (optical character recognition).
DEST Corporation of Milpitas, CA, has introduced PC Scan, a page scanner for the IBM Per-
sonal Computer. The PC Scan box itself costs $1995 and measures 4 by ll'/s by 16
inches— about the size of a standard dot-matrix printer. Because the pages are fed in and
out of one side of PC Scan, you can put it under a disk drive, printer, or terminal. The PC
Scan controller board contains an SCSI interface, costs $195, and plugs into an IBM PC. XT.
or AT.
PC Scan automatically scans one sheet at a time. It isn't very picky about what sort of

(continued)
FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 9

page you feed it, accepting weights from 16 pounds to 30 pounds and sizes from 6 by 6
inches to 8/2 by 14 inches. Automatic video thresholding adjusts the scanning contrast for
varying paper colors. Pages placed right side up emerge face down to maintain the se-
quence of multiple-page documents.

Inside PC Scan are the optical-mechanical hardware and a proprietary VLSI OCR pro-
cessor. Documents are scanned in about 5 seconds at a resolution of 300 dots per inch,
and the information is then sent to the attached IBM PC.

To make use of the data, you'll need OCR software, like DEST's software for the PC Scan,
called Text Pac This $595 program contains type style and recognition information that lets
PC Scan read all common business documents. A page can be "recognized" in about 25
seconds. Text Pac automatically enters text into the formats of word-processing programs
like WordStar and MultiMate. The program even determines the placement of tabs, under-
scores, and centering instructions and enters these into the file. To use PC Scan, you just in-
sert the page to be scanned and type Alt-S while running your word processor. PC Scan
will bring in the text and show you the progress on the PC's screen. DEST is developing
other application-specific software for PC Scan and hopes to stimulate third-party
developers to do the same.

Chinese Introduce PC Clone

Great Wall, People's Republic of China, offers the 0520A, 0520C-E, and 0520C-H line of IBM
PC-compatible microcomputers. The 0520C-H, which is the top of the line, contains a com-
plete set of PC features, including an 8088 processor, 512K bytes of RAM, two 320K-byte
floppies, and a 20-megabyte hard disk. The system also boasts a 648- by 504-pixel color
display and a monochrome 972- by 700-pixel display, essential for the 16 by 18 and 24 by
28 high-resolution Chinese characters the system can present. Great Wall also offers the
GW-NET network, several special display adapters, and is developing a PC AT clone that will
support XENIX.

Nanobytes

NEC is sampling its V40 and V50 (/*PD70208 and ^PD70216) CMOS 16-bit microprocessors.
Both chips have a 1 -megabyte address space, run all V20 and V30 software— and therefore
8088/86 software— and have integrated many system functions onto the processor chip: a
four-channel DMA controller, a serial controller, a DRAM-refresh controller, an interrupt con-
troller, timer/counters, clock generator, and a program wait and bus controller. . . . For
those who want to leap past silicon, TYiQuint Semiconductor of Beaverton, OR, offers the
Q-Chip Evaluation Kit for $2 500. This kit includes two Q-Chip GaAs (gallium arsenide) MSI
(medium-scale integration) cell arrays that run at 2 gigahertz, one high-speed evaluation cir-
cuit board, support parts, and documentation ... Award Software. Los Gatos, CA, is offer-
ing three modes of BIOS support for IBM-compatible enhanced graphics adapters. The
compatible BIOS supports all alphanumeric and graphics modes and fits in a 16K-byte
ROM. . . . Hunter & Ready, Palo Alto, CA, has ported its VRTX real-time operating system
to Motorola's new VMEmodule board family. This includes the MVME130 single-board
microcomputer that employs the 68020 32-bit processor and the 68881 FPU (floating-point
unit) .... Consulair Corp. of Portola Valley, CA, announced several new products for Macin-
tosh C programmers. The $80 Consulair Linker is an optimizing linker and librarian for Con-
sulair Mac C and Apple MDS (Macintosh 68000 Development System) programmers. The
$100 Consulair Utilities includes SuperMake for determining which files need recompilation,
Diff for comparing files, Grep for searching multiple files, and MPA for analyzing perfor-
mance. Consulair is also selling ALSoft s MacExpress generic application for $495 and Fair-
corn's C-Tree ISAM package for $395 .... Borland's new $69.95 TUrbo Editor Toolbox in-
cludes Turbo Pascal source code for construction and customization of editors and word
processors as well as a partial adaptation of MicroPro's WordStar word processor Soft-
works Development in Mountain View, CA, introduced PC-Outline, a shareware outlining
program for the IBM PC, XT, or AT. Registration costs $49.95 .... Intel is the first company
to put EPROMs into surface-mountable plastic-leaded chip-carrier (PLCC) packages that use
less than one-third of the board space of the previous DIP packages. . . . Advanced Micro
Devices introduced the Am7970 compression/expansion processor chip (CEP) that can com-
press images by ratios of 30:1. The chip complies with CCITT recommended standards and
can expand and compress both text and image data simultaneously using its three process-
ing engines and two-bus architecture. AMD also introduced the Am8l77 16-bit Video Data
Serializer that converts pixel data from parallel to serial at a 200-MHz shift rate. . . . Oki
Semiconductor, Sunnyvale, CA, launched the 80C59, a CMOS single-chip 8-bit microcom-
puter that includes 16K bytes of ROM, 256 bytes of RAM, and three 16-bit timers. The chip
uses the same instruction set as the smaller 80C5I and is available in speeds up to 16 MHz.

10 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986 Inquiry 279 —

Stumped on Software?

Find the powerful applications you need with
Tandy's Express Order Software service.

Having trouble finding just the
right program for your Tandy/Radio
Shack® computer? Drop by your lo-
cal Radio Shack Computer Center
and choose from the most complete
selection of software available.

Our exclusive Express Order Soft-
ware service brings you the hottest-
selling packages — each one per-
formance proven and professionally
supported by the software manufac-
turer. Your order is transmitted elec-
tronically and shipped the next
business day for the fastest service.

Send for your free copy of the new
1986 Radio Shack Software Refer-
ence and Tandy® Computer Guide.
In it, you'll find hundreds of popular
programs. Choose from powerful ac-
counting, word processing, spread-
sheet analysis, database manage-
ment, integrated software and mul-
tiuser packages. You'll also find the
best in personal and educational soft-
ware, plus exciting games.

Radio Shack Computer Centers
are your one-stop software head-
quarters. Come in today!

Radio /hack

COMPUTER CENTERS

A DiVtSION OF TANDY CORPORATION

Send me a free RSC-16 Software Guide.

Dept. 86-A-792, 300 One Tandy Center
Fort Worth, Texas 76102

Give us your climbers, your

ambitious,yearning

The trouble with success these days is
that there's too much of it.

Everywhere you look, you see its sleek,
expensive trappings.

This message, then, is directed at those
for whom mere prosperity is not enough.

Who know that to outstrip the
multitudes who succeed, you must
exceed.

With Microsoft® Excel for the Macintosh™
If your fortune is fixed in the inter-
pretation of numbers, Microsoft Excel will
put into your hands a financial
analysis tool of unprecedented
power. The most formidable
spreadsheet ever to run
on a personal computer.
A spreadsheet

strivers,your unabashedly
to succeed the boss*

which is in turn linked in harmony with
an extraordinary graphics program and a
highly capable data filing application.

These already considerable powers are
magnified geometrically by Macros.

Which give Microsoft Excel the capacity
to learn your most complex routines.
And activate them with a single keystroke.

Yet because power means nothing if it's

not accessible, Microsoft Excel is simple to
learn, simple to use.

For a persuasive demonstration of the
potency of Microsoft Excel, see your
Microsoft dealer.

Because every day it gets harder to impress
yourself.

Microsoft* Excel

The rest are history.

You can upgrade to Microsoft Excel from Microsoft Multiplan* for the Macintosh. For the name of your nearest dealer
call (800) 426-9400. In Washington State and Alaska, (206) 828-8088. In Canada, call (800) 387-6616.

Microsoft and Multiplan nre registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Macintosh is a trademark licensed to Mcintosh Laboratory, Inc. and is used with its express permission.

J

LETTERS

Interfaces for the Disabled

I am currently completing my master's
degree in education at Ohio State Univer-
sity. One of my courses is a three-hour in-
dependent study project for the director
of occupational therapy at Ohio State
University Hospitals. The project calls for
me to compile a journal/notebook of in-
terface devices that allow handicapped
persons to use their computers.

The degree of handicap varies consider-
ably from patient to patient. Some may
need merely a utility to convert keyboard
keys to toggles in the event that they can
use only one hand or some other device
to type with.

What I am discovering is that there is a
dearth of information available, and 1 am
seeking help from BYTE readers. If anyone
out there in computerland (small "c") can
assist me with information on various in-
terface devices, I would be appreciative.

1 also invite anecdotal experiences from
any handicapped persons on their par-
ticular computer system, the degree of
their handicap, and the methods they use
to interface with the computer system.

All of the above information would be
placed in a notebook for use by rehabilita-
tion occupational therapists in helping
others as the need arises. Information
such as copies of magazine articles deal-
ing with this issue will also be appreciated.
Arnie Skurow
5760 Crawford Dr.
Columbus. OH 43229

Coding for the 32016

I have been tinkering with a National Semi-
conductor 32016 processor, and I'm so en-
thusiastic about the results that I must
make other readers more aware of this
chip. In the past I hesitated to wander from
the Z80 because I'm very fluent in Z80
code and shunned the idea of learning the
assembly language of other processors.
When I started coding for the 32016. 1 im-
mediately found it to be very easy, begin-
ning with the very first line of code. Assem-
bly code flows from the pencil much easier
than the English language. There is almost
no need for a high-level language: the hard-
ware is high-level. Still, I wanted a high-level
language but didn't know how to write a
compiler, so I wrote a FORTH-83 program

for it (that is, it is similar to FORTH-83. but
it uses 3 2 -bit signed integers exclusively).
I couldn't get its Sieve of Eratosthenes time
(10 iterations) any faster than 9.6 seconds
because of the awkward syntax of FORTH.
In the process of trying to optimize the
compilation of FORTH, I realized I could
write a compiler for any language. I added
BASIC to my FORTH simply by throwing in
a parser and adding some BASIC keywords.
Don't get the idea that 1 did any of the
programming in FORTH; assembly lan-
guage is much easier.

Now here's the meat of the story: My
BASIC does 10 iterations of the Sieve in
1 .78 seconds. The compile time is 0.1 1 sec-
ond, so if you have the text in the editor
and type RUN, it takes 1.89 seconds to
compile and run the Sieve. That is what
I call a type I compiler; it is a compiler that
completely emulates an interpreter. I call
the regular compilers type 11 compilers;
these are the ones that compile modules
so that an arbitrary number of precom-
piled modules can be linked together.

You might be wondering how fast my
32016 (7.16-MHz clock) will do the Sieve
in hand-coded assembly language if it
does it that fast in BASIC. The answer is
that I cannot improve upon the compiled
code using assembly language. I'm not
sure if you would call this an optimizing
compiler, because there is no optimizer.
It simply makes one pass through the
source code and writes the same kind of
machine code that I would write. The
32016 obliterates the dilemma between a
high-level language and assembly lan-
guage in one fell swoop. If this processor
performs this way in the hands of a
neophyte who has not seen how com-
pilers are written, imagine what it would
do in the hands of Microsoft or Borland!
You could write every part of your high-
speed stuff in the high-level language of
your choice with confidence that you
could not improve its speed with assembly
language. Here are some examples of
BASIC statements that compile to a single
machine-code instruction:

A = A * C

count = count + 5

A = A/C

And if / and j happen to be register

variables, these statements will each com-
pile to a single machine-code instruction:

A(0 = B(/)
flags(/) = 1

l have written some software floating-point
routines (IEEE double-precision) for my
32016. It does the square root in 190
microseconds, which is 113 times as fast
as BASCOM does it on my Z80 system. I
have not integrated my software floating-
point routines into my BASIC because of
the lure of the hardware math chip, which
does a double-precision multiply faster
than it can move the operands in and out
of memory.

I find coding for the 32016 very easy and
a lot of fun. and 1 recommend it as a form
of entertainment even if you don't need
one.

Neil R. Koozer
Oakland, OR

Data General/One-A User s
Perspective

Part of what makes the Data General/One
work for me is its diminutive presence. I
never need to accommodate the machine
except to open it where there is adequate
light so that its gentle screen can be read
comfortably.

I work primarily in programming for fast
graphics applications or for fancy vision/
robotics installations using machines
where the power supplies hum and the
screens practically crackle with color and
energy. The software is written on the
slower, softer, quieter DG/One whenever
possible.

I like knowing that I am getting less elec-
tronic radiation directly from my worksta-

[continued)

LETTERS POLICY: To be considered for publica-
tion, a letter must be typed double-spaced on one
side of the paper and must include your name and
address. Comments and ideas should be expressed as
clearly and concisely as possible. Listings and tables
may be printed along with a letter if they are short
and legible.

Because BYTE receives hundreds of letters each
month, not all of them can be published, letters will
not be returned to authors. Generally, it takes four
months from the time BYTE receives a letter until
it is published.

14 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

This Little Fela

Means Business.

The Mouse by Maynard Electronics makes your favorite
programs faster, wsmmm easier, and smarter!

At last, an "intelligent" mouse! Now you can add
command power to your programs, when you
want, the way you want — instantly! The Mouse
by Maynard Electronics comes with our
CustomKey™ software which lets you assign
and reassign commands while using your
favorite programs — even those without
mouse utilities. Fly through programs like
Symphony? Lotus 1 -2-3? Framework? Multi-
Mate?and others with undreamed of speed!
And of course, it's fully compatible with all
programs written for a mouse, too.

'Symphony and Lotus 1-2-3 are trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation.
Framework is a trademark of Ashton-Tate. MultiMate is a trademark of SoftWord Sys-
tems Inc. Telepaint is a trademark of LCSfielegraphics.

Teach The Mouse
To Type.

A single Mouse click will instantly
produce the character, sentence,
paragraph, or anything else
you've selected. Click: you call
up the CustomKey menu. Click:
your file is saved. Click: a com-
monly used paragraph appears
in place. No other mouse gives
you such power and versatility.

A Tale Of Three Mice . . .

Compare our Mouse with the others running
around and you'll see, there's no comparison!
Here are just a few features across the board:

FEATURES

Maynard
Mouse

Micro-
soft

Mouse
Systems

# of Button Combinations

7

3

5

Button Auto Repeat

Yes

No

No

Diagnostics

Yes

No

Yes

Dynamic Scaling

Yes

No

No

Cursor Overshoot Control

Yes

No

No

Adjustable Cursor Speed/Up, Dn (while

running application)
Adjustable Cursor Speed/Rt, Lft (while

Yes

No

No

runningapplication)
Buttons-Definable (while running application)

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

No

Macros-Definable (while running application)

Yes

No

No

User-Definable Alternate Cursor Movement

Yes

No

No

Free Drawing!

Purchase The Mouse now and
receive the popular paint program
Telepaint* at no additional cost
— a $149 value!

Maynard Electronics

Shaping tomorrow's technology.

460 E Semoran, Casselberry, FUK707 • 305/331 -6402
Available at the finest computer stores. Contact your local dealer or write to us today for product information.

Inquiry 2! I

FEBRUARY 1 986 • BYTE

Why you

should

ignore 95%

of the news

Because NewsNet automatically finds the
5% you need. From our database of authori-
tative, up-to-date business news, you get just
the stories you want, delivered instantly to your
microcomputer. You choose your own, unique
keywords, and NewsNet saves — just for you —
every new article containing those words. Or,
\ you can find that critical 5% on your own,
££, with NewsNet's powerful keyword search-
v?^' ing and text scanning.

Just what's in NewsNet's database? The full text
of over 300 valuable business newsletters. In-
depth news, written by experts, filled with
analysis and interpretation. News from 34 dif-
ferent industries and professions — everything
from Computers to Investments, from Manage-
ment to Telecommunications. Plus extras such
as wire services, online stock quotes, air fares,
and business credit reports.

Computer News:

Your Specialty is our Specialty. Here are just
a few of the 25 Electronics and Computers
newsletters on NewsNet:

The Artificial

Intelligence Report
The Business Computer

The Computer Cookbook
Consumer Electronics
Data Base Informer
Electronic Mail News
Outlook on IBM
Japan High Tech Review
Micro Moonlighter

Mini/Micro Bulletin
Personal Computers Today
Robotronics Age

Newsletter
Semiconductor Industry

& Business Survey
The Seybold Report on

Professional Computing
Stanley Klein Newsletter

on Computer Graphics

ONLINE

BUSINESS

NEWS

.1 \

Call Today!

We'll send all you
need to subscribe.

(800)
345-1301

(in PA 215-527-8030)
wsNet Inc. 94 5 Haverforcl Road, Bryn Mawr. PA 19010

LETTERS

tion. The machine is cool; the only heat
is from my efforts, amplified impartially by
the smoothly running software that I use
(EMACS. assemblers, compilers, linkers,
debuggers, etc.).

I use 512K bytes and more than four
times the disk storage of a regular IBM PC
clone. Another virtue of the microdrives:
I keep backups of my important work and
development environments in my pocket
as insurance against the unknown. (I may
be unusually sensitive about software
security, but having the media on my per-
son at all times tremendously reduces
work-related anxiety.)

Frequently I take the DG with me. in a
small black backpack, while I cycle to the
Swiss Patisserie for a needed change of
scenery and a fruit flan with a cappuccino.
The waitress knows not to pass liquids
over the keys. Since I only unzip the back-
pack and partly withdraw the machine to
open it for working, other patrons have lit-
tle clue that they are in my software studio.

While the DG/One has been the primary
machine in our six-machine firm for the
last 1 1 months. I do not suggest it would
be best for every computer user to have
a One. It is interesting that afterward I
bought a clone with a color monitor and
640K and one drive at the same price and
instead of the DG expansion chassis and
main board upgrade (to enable my early
vintage portable to use the expansion).

1 had originally purchased a 51/4 -inch
drive that attaches easily, so. to test
machine-specific software, I move it onto
the standard flimsy media for insertion in-
to the noisy clone that bears the truer
burden of compliance with the industry
standard.

What this all boils down to is that the
DG/One supports a gestalt (an ergo-
nomic?) of productivity, where the tech-
nology is more transparent than the work
being done with it. This is something new.
like the feeling of going someplace rather
than the task of driving there.

What follows is my wish list for lap por-
tables in order of decreasing short-term
possibility:

1 . Continuous memory so that booting up
the system is an intentional act. not a
requirement after closing the lid.

2. Longer battery life; 8 to 12 hours is
sometimes less than the length of my
work day (though I seldom use just bat-
teries for such a long time).

3. Internal banked memory expansion
using Intel Lotus format to 2 mega-
bytes.

[continued)

Introducing In*aVision

Complex Drawing

w:

just for you. The
engineer who needs
more productive
drafting support.
The designer
who needs ver-
satility for alter-
nate ideas or
quick revisions.
The architect who
needs to manage a
variety of working
drawings. And the
businessman who
needs first-class presentation mate-
rials as well as detailed flow charts
and organization charts.

Point. Click. Draw.

Now all you do to create com-
plex technical drawings, systems
designs, blueprints, diagrams, illus-
trations, and proposals is point,

click and draw. With
In-a-Vision's mouse
support, windowing,
icons, and pull-down
menus, you produce
drawings more quick-
ly, accurately and ef fi
ciently than ever before.

In-a-Vision's advanced tech-
nology includes many features not
found on comparable systems cost-
ing thousands more. For example,

(Most popular graphics cards, plotters and printers supported.)
Microsoft Windows compatible. Call for specific operating
environment requirements.

Unlike more expensive CAD
systems, In-a-Vision is easy to
install and use. Even the com-
puter novice can be productive
in less than a day. And
In-a-Vision is not copy-
protected.

We're so sure In-a-Vision will

around in a user-de-
finable drawing space
up to 68" X 68" and
zoom in on specific
areas for greater de-
tail. Scale, rotate and
dimension symbols, fill an area
with your choices of predefined
colors and patterns, as well as
draw lines with multiple styles and
widths. Other features include
overlays, predefined and user-
definable page sizes, rulers,
grids, and symbol libraries.

Multi-tasking
in a PC-based
CAD system.

In-a-Vision uses
multi-tasking to enable
you to continue drawing while
printing hard copies as well as edit
multiple drawings simultaneously.

MICROGRAFX

The Picture of Success.

Inquiry 222

make you more pro-
ductive, we'll give you
ten days to prove it to
yourself. If In-a-Vision doesn't
improve your productivity, return
it within ten days for a full refund.
In-a-Vision will
make your complex
drawing tasks sim-
ple and make you
more productive.
Satisfaction guar-
anteed. Dial
800-272-3729 to
order or for a free
brochure. In Texas
or for customer support, call
(214)234-1769. MICROGRAFX,
Inc., 1820 North Greenville Ave-
nue, Richardson, Texas 75081.

In-a-Vision and MICROGRAFX arc trademarks of

MICROGRAFX. Inc.

Windows and Microsoft arc trademarks of Microsoft. Inc.

Inquiry 198

Everything that goes into a
3M diskette is manufac
tured and/or controlled by
specifications set by 3M.
From unique substrates and
oxides, to hole punching and
jacket fabrication, 3M does it
all and does it well. With confi-
dence in your complete satisfaction,
3M diskettes are certified to be error
free and have an unlimited warranty
against defects in workmanship or
materials. Day in and day out 3M gives
you one less thing to worry about.

What separates us from our competition? Simply a combination of the best service
in the industry, highly competitive pricing, and an ever widening range of products.
Above all we care about our reputation and we are willing to work on a lower margin
while delivering what others only claim— and we do it all on a day-in day-out basis.

Early in 1986 every subscriber to — «^
Byte Magazine will receive our New L^FDflsH
1986 First Edition Catalog with 16 ad-
ditional pages and dramatically lower
pricing. We want to be your source
for computer supplies & accessories.

1050 E. MAPLE RD. • TROY, Ml 48083
(313) 589-3440

computer
Systems

DataSaver400

Standby UPS

Power protection for high-level microcomputers with
peripherals, multi-tasking systems, and communi- /
cation networks is here, now, with the 400 Watt
DataSaver. Placed between the desktop computer
and system monitor, the DataSaver 400 features
a master power switch directing four power outlets.
2-stapes of overvoltage transient suppression and
built-in, automatically recharged batteries stand by
to assure clean, uninterrupted power for the five
minutes you might need to shut down before the
power shuts off. 90 and 200 Watt models available.

Cuesta Systems Corporation

3440 Roberto Court

San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

M985, Made in U.S.A.

Deaier, O.E.M. inquiries invitee

LETTERS

4. Color LCD technology.

5. Multiple LCDs (one in color) arranged
like a fold-out book, to be used like
semivolatile printouts and as alternate
touch-sensitive in-use screens. The
main problem in portable (clandestine)
computing is temporary hard copy; the
vanishing that windowing software re-
quires of the occluded data is crippling.
Normal screens carry less than a
printed page, anyway; when I really get
going, my desk has at least four pages
of highly relevant information that I ran-
domly refer to as needed. I would sug-
gest a primary-color LCD that, when
slipped upward six inches, would ex-
pose a secondary black-and-white LCD
that could be folded outward and aside
to unveil three more subscreens.

6. Physical architecture resembling a bun-
dle of pocket books, so that you could:

a. snap off the keyboard processor ele-
ment and unfold a detached
keyboard

b. snap off the display processor ele-
ment and unfold a multiple touch-
screen with integrated stand and
auxiliary lighting

c. switch on the CPU/mass-storage
element

d. optionally snap the elements to-
gether into a rigid form while run-
ning for least susceptibility to casual
interference by innocent passersby

7. A cluster of transputers with a mimic
operating-system shell that enable it to
emulate other operating systems and
read disks of any format.

8. Portable voice and vision and commu-
nications subsystems with optional CD-
ROMS and CD-RAMS, as miniaturized
DMA peripherals.

Okay, Data General, your work is cut out
for you. In the meantime, I will continue
to click away at the diminutive tan and
cream keys beneath a soft gray display
panel away from the crackle and (ho)hum
of real computers.

Jerry Waese
Toronto, Ontario. Canada

Whose icon Is It?

Our family garbage can has served us
faithfully and well, transferring without
complaint our trash from home to the
county dump. Its image was something we
shared with people from here to Tim-
buktu. If we were in Rangoon and didn't
speak the lingo, we merely drew a picture,
said "Ash can it, Charley," pointing to the
picture, and Charley understood.

{continued)

18 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 106

Far those times when 640K memory
just doesn't seem to be enough.

AST introduces RAMpage!™ with
up to 2 Mb of PC RAM.

Feed your byte-gobbling appli
cations with the expanded
memory of RAMpage! And
stop wasting valuable time
with frustrating "Memory
Full" messages.

Breaking The 640K
Barrier.

RAMpage! breaks
through the PCs 640K-
byte barrier delivering up to 2
megabytes of parity checked
memory for expanded memory
applications. Up to 4 RAMpage!
boards can be used in a single
PC for a full 8 Mb of memory
per system.

EMS Compatibility.
RAMpage! is fully compatible
with all applications
developed for use
with the Lotus®

Expanded
Memory Speci-
fication (EMS). It's
also supported by Enhanced
EMS software— offering more
versatility for even greater value
and performance.

New software updates of popu-
lar applications like Symphony™
Framework™and 1-2-3,® designed

specifically for use with EMS
boards, are now becoming avail-
able. And a wide variety of
other packages, including win-
dowing, spreadsheet,
database and CAD
applications, will
soon follow.

A Super Bonus.
RAMpage!
includes AST's
new Super Pak™ utility
software. Designed specifically
to operate in expanded memory
environments, it allows you to
spool print jobs and create
multiple RAM disks for added
performance.

Don't let your valuable byte-
hungry applications starve.
Get RAMpage! today. For
more information call our
Customer Information Center
(714) 863-1333.

, Or write, AST Research, Inc.,
2121 Alton Avenue, Irvine,
California 92714
TWX: 753699 ASTR UR.

Specifications

• For use with IBM 9 PC, PC-XT, 3270 PC
and compatibles.

• Up to 2.0 Mb expanded memory per
board-8. Mb total per system.

• Socketed and user upgradeable with
256 K DRAMS.

• Fully compatible with Lotus EMS 3.0.

• Enhanced EMS design for greater per-
formance with enhanced EMS software.

•AST Expanded Memory Manager
software standard.

• New SuperPak™ utility software standard.

RCSCRRCH INC.

RAMpage! and SuperPak trademarks
of AST Research, Inc. Lotus and 1-2-3
registered trademarks and Symphony
trademark of lotus Development
Corp. Framework trademark of
Ashton-Tate. IBM registered trade-
mark of International Business
Machines Corp.

^%>>

Inquiry 2 for End-Users. Inquiry 3 for DEALERS ONLY.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 19

i\ve

& ^< HP*

^

W&*

Now EVEREX is the only source you need for PC
peripherals.

When EVEREX looked at users' needs and requirements from the
IBM PC we saw two very common concerns - compatibility and
service. In response to your needs, we've engineered the TOTAL
SOLUTION, a complete line of add-ons and add-ins for expanding
your PC.

Buying from separate sources can mean getting passed
between suppliers when a problem arises. Suddenly, each one
insists that it's the other supplier's fault. EVEREX is a ONE-STOP
SHOP that delivers the performance, compatibility, and service you
need to get the highest productivity from your computer
investment. You know your graphics board will work with your
multifunction board and all you other peripherals, because they're
all made by EVEREX.

We're the TOTAL SOLUTION for all your IBM PC peripheral
needs. EVEREX offers you more!

GRAPHICS

MULTIFUNCTION

•The EDGE™ is a monochrome and color video adapter
that goes up to 720 x 384 pixel resolution on a TTL
monochrome monitor, and gives you full color capability
too. List price $399.

•The GRAPHICS EDGE™ is a color and monochrome
video adapter that offers up to 640 x 400 pixel resolution
and can support three monitors simultaneously. List price
$499.

..And back by popular demand...

•EVERGRAPHICS™ high-resolution, low-cost
monochrome adapter with printer port and light pen
interface. List price $289.

•GRAPHICS PACER™ monochrome adapter and floppy
disk controller. List price $389.

All the EVEREX graphics boards offer 1 32 column by 44
row extended display for Lotus 1 -2-3 and other popular
programs.

T E • KEBKJJARV 1986

_ — — ^-

•MAGIC CARD™ offers 0-384K user-addressable RAM, a

printer port, game port, and 9-pin serial port, plus a

clock/calendar with battery backup and four valuable

software packages. List price $ 1 85.

•MAGIC CARD BF M has all the features of the MAGIC

CARD, plus a 25-pin second serial port and the ability to

use 64K or 256K RAM chips. List price $ 1 99.

•MAGIC CARD AT rM packs a full two megabytes of user-

adressable RAM, in addition to two serial ports, a parallel

printer port, a game port, and the four software packages.

List price $330.

...For Memory Only...

•MINI MAGIC CARD™ holds up to 576K user-addressable

memory, and can use either 64K or 256K chips. List price

$99.

•RAM 2500™ uses 265K RAM chips to add two and a half

megabytes of user-addressable RAM to the IBM AT and

compatibles. List price $250.

•RAM 3000™ adds three megabytes of user-selectable

RAM to the AT and compatibles; uses 64K or 256K chips.

List price $280.

All board prices are for standard zero RAM configuration - populated boards available.

STORAGE

•EVERDISK™ hard disk drives; list price $ 1 195 for 10MB,
$1395 for 20MB.

•EXCEL STREAM-20™ streaming tape cassette drive,
backs up 5 megabytes per minute and does f ile-by-file
restore from a mirror image backup. List price $995.
•EXCEL STREAM-60™ has same features plus higher
capacity, and uses quarter-inch cartridges for greatest
interchangeability. List price $1345 internal, $1595
external.

•EXCEL STREAM-100™ has top capacity in an external
box that can be shared among several PCs. Shielded
round cable cuts signal interference. List price $ 1897;
additional half-size controller cards $ 1 59 each.

•QIC-FLOPPY™ streaming tape and floppy drive
controller. Shipped standard with the Excel Stream-20;
available separately at list price $ 1 59.

•FULL-SIZE, HALF-SIZE, AND SLIMLINE™ EXPANSION
CHASSIS with shielded round cables and no wait states.
List price $987 each.

Only EVEREX offers you the highest
price-performance value across a full line of
peripheral products. To start getting the TOTAL
SOLUTION for your PC. call us today for an
EVEREX dealer near you.

1-800-821-0806

1-800-82 1-0807 (in California)
Remember... we're EVER for Excellence.

The Edge. Graphics Edge. Evergraphics. Graphics Pacer. Magic Card. Magic Card II.
Magic Card AT. Mini Magic Card. RAM 2500 AT. RAM 3000 AT. Everdisk. Excel Stream-
20. Excel Stream-60. Excel Stream- 100. QIC-Floppy, and Slimline are registered
trademarks of EVEREX Systems. Inc.

IBM PC and AT are registered trademarks or International Business Machines Corp.

Lotus 1-2-3 is a registered trademark of Lotus Development Corp.

Inquiry 134 for End-Users. Inquiry 13 5 for DEALERS ONLY;

47777 Warm Springs Blvd. Fremont CA 94539 (415) 498-1 1 1 1

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 21

ASYST high- resolution graphics now include error New color graphics enhance comparison of

bars, labels, axes, grids, and multiple colors. experimental data with filtered data.

ASYSTaxonometricplots simplify analysis of
complicated 3-dimensional surfaces.

Contour plotting adds an alternative approach to
meaningful 3-D representation.

ASYST adds new muscle.

More hardware support, more analysis
capabilities for the IBM PC.

ASYST" Scientific Software turns your
IBM PC, XT,™ AT, or compatible into a
complete scientific workstation. And
now it's even more versatile, with:

• Expanded analysis capabilities

• High-resolution color graphics

• GPIB/IEEE-488 hardware support

• Axonometric and contour plotting

• Additional A/D hardware support

Minicomputer speed and precision-
at a fraction of the cost.

ASYSTon an IBM PC does a 1024-pt.
FFT in less than 3 seconds (as fast as
1.2 on some compatibles). For the same
task, an optimum performance routine
on a DEC 1 1/23 + minicomputer using
FPF 1 1 ,M took 2 seconds- at 5 times
the price!

Built-in routines. Full programmability.
Straightforward, pre-programmed com-
mands, such as XY.DATA.PLOT, FFT, and
A/D. IN, put you in totalcontrol right
away. Commands can be used interac-
tively, or combined and modified as
needed-from simple macros to fully
customized programs. And all com-

22 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

mands co-reside in memory-no disk
shuffling.

ASYST is four separate,
fully-integrated modules:

Module 1: System/Graphics/Statistics

establishes the environment. It provides
basic mathematics operators, descriptive
statistics, array manipulation and control,
automatic plotting and color graphics
support (including IBM standard/
enhanced and Hercules boards), a text
editor, file I/O, and a built-in program-
ming language.

Module 2: Analysis reduces and
analyzes data. Includes eigenvalues,
eigenvectors, polynomials, ANOVA,
axonometric and contour plotting, least
squares approximations, curve fitting,
convolutions, integration, differentiation,
smoothing, and fast Fourier transform.

Module 3: Data Acquisition allows
communication with lab equipment and
analog signal sources. Includes A/D
and D/A conversions, digital I/O, timing,
and triggering. Supports standard inter-
face boards including IBM DACA.

Module 4: GPIB/IEEE-488 allows
additional interfacing to some 10,000
instruments through a variety of plug-in
cards.

• Purchase Module 1 alone-or with
any combination of the other modules-
to tailor the system to your specific
applications.

Try ASYST for 30 days. For details, call
(800) 348-0033; in NY, (212) 702-3241.

MACMILLAN SOFTWARE CO.

An Affiliate of Macmillon Publishing Company

866 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022

Inquiry 200

LETTERS

Our can's image, or "icon." as the fancy
dudes have it. together with similar im-
ages, offered the potential for a universal
language or symbolic system. The day was
coming when a local girl in Kathmandu,
encountering a new computer for the first
time, could scan the images on the screen
and have a fighting chance to figure the
thing out.

Alas, no longer. Through the leger-
demain of Apple Computer's forensic
wizards, Apple has taken possession of
the family garbage can. or, at least, its im-
age (\nfdNorld. October 7, 1985. quoting
Michael Reichmann, vice-president of de-
velopment and marketing for software
maker Batteries Included of Toronto, in an
article entitled 'Apple Forces GEM
Change"— "Things like the trash can icon,
the disk icons. . .are going to have to
go. . . .Apple is going after everybody,
Commodore and Amiga, Microsoft for
Windows. . . .").

Ancient wisdom has it that "Those who
do not exercise their rights lose them."
One might hope that someone would
challenge this blatant image grab.

Alas, the might of Apple's battle-
hardened batallions of legal talent is
renowned. Before their unsurpassed
prowess, legal skills, and unbridled feroci-
ty, huge corporations quake and slink
away.

Thus, we envision a world in which every
garbage can bears the legend "Visual Im-
age Property of Apple Computer," or, as
is inevitable, shortened forms thereof.

The cloud might yet have a silver lining.
We might yet have a blessing in disguise
if. every time we saw Apple's name on a
garbage can. we resolutely undertook to
exercise and defend those of our rights
remaining.

Be that as it may. we have no alternative
but to comply with rights legally ap-
propriated. I am off now to paint the bit-
ter legend on my family garbage can: "Im-
age of Apple Computer."

Dick Bell
Bodega, CA

MULTIBUS 11 VERSUS VMEBUS

[ thought your special edition, inside the
IBM PCs, was exceptional. The information
contained within the magazine serves as
an excellent piece of reference material.
I would, however, like to take issue with
G. Michael Vose's comments in his edi-
torial "Intel and Future IBM PCs."

Mr. Vose states that the VMEbus is bet-
ter suited for single-processor applica-
tions. Both bus architectures (Multibus II

[continued)

The most flexible
printer-sharing device
you can buy is from

BayTech -

;omputer

printers

0r any combination

in .between

Introducing the new Model 528DB multiport controller. It will
let eight users automatically share one printer, or in multiple
printer applications, let users code-select a specific printer
or contend for the first available printer. Flexible, user-
selectable features include: the number of printers versus
the number of computers, printer select code, CTS/DTR or
XON-XOFF handshaking, operating mode, form-feed mode,
header-page message, disconnect time-out, and baud
rates. To set up, simply connect the multiport between
your computers and printers. It interfaces easily with any
RS-232C serial device. Model 528DB with 9 ports, $659.
Larger models also available.

^n^

BAY TECHNICAL ASSOCIATES, INC.

DATA COMMUNICATIONS PRODUCTS

800-523-2702

Highway 603, P.O. Box 387, Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi 39520
Phone: 601-467-8231 Telex: 910-333-1618 (BAYTECH)

Inquiry 35

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 23

LETTERS

and VME) are capable of multiple bus
masters coexisting within one system. In
fact the flexibility afforded to the VME
system designer in the choices for bus ar-
bitration between bus masters is greater
than that afforded to the Multibus II
system designer.

As Mr. Vose notes in his editorial, "Many
of the high-end supermicros are MC680I0-
based machines" with the preferred bus

architecture being the VMEbus. Sun.
Apollo, and even IBM have introduced
products (systems) based on VME. When
IBM wants to get some real throughput
from a computing system, it, too, relies on
the 68000 (the IBM 3270 PC). I invite Mr.
Vose to a meeting of the Chicago chapter
of the VITA (VME International Trade
Association) user group. At the last
meeting, a VME system was demonstrated

Instead of this... ...you can have this

with this!

afl'BBa 'jasaagaiiaiipi

! a«||Bf ■■•■■■ aaflflafl^aaa
aa|l»aaaaaaaaaaapiaaap:

Why waste time digging
through cumbersome manuals
for operating commands?
PC-DocuMate™ templates put
computer commands at your
fingertips for the IBM* PC,
PC-XT, PC- AX AT&T,®
Compaqf and Apple® He.

You'll have quick reference
for needed commands, options
and formats right on your key-
board with a PC-DocuMate
template.

Our professionally designed,
two-sided templates are made
of durable, non-glare plastic.
Satisfaction is guaranteed—
fully— or your money back.

-BasaMFte-

S 14.95

Templa tes Now Ava ila hie—
IBM PC/XT* and COMPAQ* :
DOS/BASIC (3.0 & 3.1) • 1-2-3 •
Symphony • dBASE II • dBASE III •
Framework • MultiMate •
WordStar • WordStar 2000 + •
EasyWriter II . MULTIPLAN •
PeachText 5000 • SUPER CALC 3 •
TURBO Pascal • WordPerfect •
VOLKSWRITER DELUXE •
Do-It-Yourself.

PC/AT": DOS BASIC (3.0 & 3.1) •
dBASE III • 1-2-3 • WordStar
2000 + • Symphony • WordPerfect •
MultiMate. • Do-lt- Yourself.
AT&T" : dBASE III • 1-2-3 •
WordStar 2000 + • WordPerfect.
Apple He*: AppleWriter II •
WordStar • VisiCalc • dBASE II •
Quickfile • Do-lt- Yourself.

How to Order.
To order by credit card call

1-800-762-7874

(In NC call 919-878-3600)

Or mail us yourpersonal check,
money order or MasterCard/Visa/
American Express information.

NC residents include 4.5% sales
tax. Please add $1.50 for shipping
and handling per order. (Foreign
orders, except Canada, add $15.00
per order). US funds only. No CODs.

Our Guarantee: Use your template
for 20 days. If you are not complete-
ly satisfied return it to us (undam-
aged) for a full refund.

VRRrWr

Systems Management Associates
3325 Executive Drive, Dept. Y-2
Raleigh, North Carolina 27609

Please send (Quantity and format )_

Name

Address

. templates to:

City

□ MasterCard Card No. _

□ American Express n .
DVisa Signature.

.State.

_ZIP_

.Exp. Date.

with seven CPU masters all running con-
currently.

Last but not least, Mr. Vose compares
the architecture of the 68000 to that of
the VAX ("partly due to the 68000's
similarity to Digital Equipment Corpora-
tion's VAX hardware. . ."). Actually the
68000 architecture more closely resem-
bles that of the DEC PDP-I I . The National
Semiconductor 32032 architecture is
closer to the DEC VAX than the 68000 is.

We have all heard about the problems
associated with the Intel 80286 running
in the protected mode. To date. I have not
seen one operating system that operates
in this mode. To this end, Mr. Vose's com-
ment that Motorola design engineers have
met their original design goals on the
MC68000 family is true. All modes on the
68000 work.

Gary A. Shade
Elk Grove Village, IL

G. Michael Vose replies:

1 thank Mr. Shade for his comments on

our IBM special issue.

1 did not claim, however, that the
VMEbus is ' 'better suited for single-pro-
cessor applications" (his phrase). I
argued that the bus is "nicely suited" to
these architectures. My point was that
the VMEbus can be used in low-cost sin-
gle-processor systems or in multipro-
cessor systems, while Multibus 11 is strict-
ly a multiprocessor bus. This VMEbus
flexibility characterizes Motorola's ap-
proach to hardware/software design, but-
tressing my contention that Motorola and
Intel have distinct corporate mindsets to
solving problems.

Look for a two-part article comparing
the VME and Intel buses in future issues
of BYTE.

Mr. Shade is correct that the 68000
more closely resembles the architecture
of the PDP-11 than the VAX, which I was
aware of but misstated.

Calculating 7r

I read with interest the recent articles on
calculating transcendental numbers.
'"Computing Pi" by David J. Crawford (May
1985. page 433) contained an algorithm
for computing ir using an infinite series,
orlaylor expansion, that Crawford noted
was "virtually useless" because the rate
at which it converges on the true value of
7r declines rapidly. I was interested in see-
ing how bad this convergence problem
was at the extreme, so I converted Craw-
ford's program to FORTRAN (with some
modifications) and ran it on a Digital

{continued)

24 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 317

The C for Microcomputers

PC-DOS, MS-DOS, CP/M-86, Macintosh, Amiga, Apple II, CP/M-80, Radio Shack,
Commodore, XENIX, ROM, and Cross Development systems

MS-DOS, PC-DOS, CP/M-86, XENIX,
8086/80x86 ROM

Manx Aztec C86

"A compiler that has many strengths . . . quite valuable
for serious work"

Computer Language review, February 1985

Great Code: Manx Aztec C86 generates fast executing
compact code. The benchmark results below are from a
study conducted by Manx. The Dhrystone benchmark
(CACM 10/84 27:10 pl018) measures performance for a
systems software instruction mix. The results are with-
out register variables. With register variables, Manx,
Microsoft, and Mark Williams run proportionately faster,
Lattice and Computer Innovations show no improve-
ment.

Execution

Code

Compile/

Time

Size

Link Time

Dhrystone Benchmark

Manx Aztec C86 3.3 34 sees

5,760

93 sees

Microsoft C 3.0 34 sees

7,146

119 sees

Optimized C86 2.20J 53 sees

11,009

172 sees

Mark Williams 2.0 56 sees

12,980

113 sees

Lattice 2.14 89 sees

20,404

117 sees

Great Features: Manx Aztec C86 is bundled with a powerful

array of well documented productivity tools, library routines

and features.

Optimized C compiler Symbolic Debugger

AS86 Macro Assembler LN86 Overlay Linker

80186/80286 Support Librarian

8087/80287 Sensing Lib Profiler

Extensive UNIX Library DOS, Screen, & Graphics Lib

Large Memory Model Intel Object Option

Z (vi) Source Editor -c CP/M-86 Library -c

ROM Support Package < INTEL HEX Utility -c

Library Source Code -c Mixed memory models -c

MAKE, DIFF, and GREP -c Source Debugger -c

One year of updates -c CP/M-86 Libiary -c

Manx offers two commercial development systems,
Aztec C86-c and Aztec C86-d. Items marked -c are
special features of the Aztec C86-c system.

Aztec C86-c Commercial System $499

Aztec C86-d Developer's System $299

Aztec C86-p Personal System $199

Aztec C86-a Apprentice System $49

All systems are upgradable by paying the difference
in price plus S10.

Third Party Software: There are a number of high qual-
ity support packages for Manx Aztec C86 for screen
management, graphics, database management, and soft-
ware development.

C-tree $395 Greenleaf $185

PHACT $250 PC-lint $98

HALO $250 Amber Windows $59

PRE-C $395 Windows for C $195
WindScreen $149 FirsTime $295

SunScreen $99 C Util Lib $185

PANEL $295 Plink-86 $395

MACINTOSH, AMIGA, XENIX,
CP/M-68K, 68k ROM

Manx Aztec C68k

"Library handling is very flexible . . . documentation is
excellent ... the shell a pleasure to work in ... blows
away the competition for pure compile speed ...an ex-
cellent effort."

Computer Language review, April 1985
Aztec C68k is the most widely used commercial C com-
piler for the Macintosh. Its quality, performance, and
completeness place Manx Aztec C68k in a position be-
yond comparison. It is available in several upgradable
versions.

Optimized C Creates Clickable Applications

Macro Assembler Mouse Enhanced SHELL

Overlay Linker Easy Access to Mac Ibolbox

Resource Compiler UNIX Library Functions
Debuggers Terminal Emulator (Source)

Librarian Clear Detailed Documentation

Source Editor C-Stuff Library

MacRam Disk -c Unilbols (vi,make,diff,grep) -c

Library Source -c One Year of Updates -c

Items marked -c are available only in the Manx Aztec
C86-c system. Other features are in both the Aztec C86-d
and Aztec C86-c systems.

Aztec C68k-c Commercial System $499

Aztec C68d-d Developer's System $299

Aztec C68k-p Personal System $199

C-tree database (source) $399

AMIGA, CP/M-68k, 68k UNIX call

Apple n, Commodore,
65xx, 65C02 ROM

Manx Aztec C65

"The AZTEC C system is one of the finest software
packages I have seen"

NIBBLE review, July 1984

A vast amount of business, consumer, and educational
software is implemented in Manx Aztec C65. The quality
and comprehensiveness of this system is competitive
with 16 bit C systems. The system includes a full optim-
ized C compiler, 6502 assembler, linkage editor, UNIX
library, screen and graphics libraries, shell, and much
more. The Apple II version runs under DOS 3.3, and
ProDOS, Cross versions are available.

The Aztec C65-dl28 Commodore system runs under
the C128 CP/M environment and generates programs for
the C64, C128, and CP/M environments. Call for prices
and availability of Apprentice, Personal and Developer
versions for the Commodore 64 and 128 machines.

Aztec C65-c ProDOS & DOS 3.3 $399
Aztec C65-d Apple DOS 3.3 $199

Aztec C65-p Apple Personal system $99
Aztec C65-a for learning C $49

Aztec C65-c/128C64,C128, CP/M $399

Distribution of Manx Aztec C

In the USA, Manx Software Systems is the sole and ex-
clusive distributor of Aztec C. Any telephone or mail
order sales other than through Manx are unauthorized.

Manx Cross Development Systems

Cross developed programs are edited, compiled, assem-
bled, and linked on one machine (the HOST) and trans-
ferred to another machine (the TARGET) for execution.
This method is useful where the target machine is slower
or more limited than the HOST, Manx cross compilers
are used heavily to develop software for business,
consumer, scientific, industrial, research, and education-
al applications.

HOSTS: VAX UNIX ($3000), PDP-11 UNIX ($2000), MS-
DOS ($750), CP/M ($750), MACINTOSH ($750),
CP/M-68k ($750), XENIX ($750).

TARGETS: MS-DOS, CP/M-86, Macintosh, CP/M-68k,
CP/M-80, TRS-80 3 & 4, Apple II, Commodore C64,
8086/80x86 ROM, 68xxx ROM, 8080/8085/Z80 ROM,
65xx ROM.

The first TARGET is included in the price of the HOST
system. Additional TARGETS are $300 to $500 (non
VAX) or $1000 (VAX).

Call Manx for information on cross development to the
68000, 65816, Amiga, C128, CP/M-68K, VRTX, and
others.

CP/M, Radio Shack,
8080/8085/Z80 ROM

Manx Aztec CII

"I've had a lot of experience with different C compilers,
but the Aztec C80 Compiler and Professional Develop-
ment System is the best I've seen."

80-Micro, December, 1984, John B. Harrell III

Aztec C H-c (CP/M & ROM) $349

Aztec C H-d (CP/M) $199

C-tree database (source) $399

Aztec C80-c (TRS-80 3 & 4) $299

Aztec C80-d (TRS-80 3 & 4) $199

How lb Become an Aztec C User

To become an Aztec C user call 1-800-221-0440 or call
1-800-832-9273 (800TEC WARE). In NJ or outside the
USA call 201-530-7997. Orders can also be telexed to
4995812.

Payment can be by check, COD, American Express,
VISA, Master Card, or Net 30 to qualified customers.

Orders can also be mailed to Manx Software Systems,
Box 55, Shrewsbury, NJ 07701.

How lb Get More Information

lb get more information on Manx Aztec C and related
products, call 1-800-221-0440, or 201-530-7997, or write
to Manx Software Systems.

30 Day Guarantee

Any Manx Aztec C development system can be return-
ed within 30 days for a refund if it fails to meet your
needs. The only restrictions are that the original pur-
chase must be directly from Manx, shipped within the
USA, and the package must be in resalable condition.
Returned items must be received by Manx within 30
days. A small restocking fee may be required.

Discounts

There are special discounts available to professors,
students, and consultants. A discount is also available on
a "trade in" basis for users of competing systems. Call for
information.

Inquiry 202

To order or for information call:

800-221-0440

LETTERS

0:10:24 MONTR EXECUTE Pl.rOR

0:10:30 USER [LNKXCT PI execution]

0:10:31 USER

ITERATION

PI

0:59:38 USER

100,000,000

0.3141 5926435897970D + 01

1:48:45 USER

200,000,000

0.3141 5926485897915D + 01

3:07:28 USER

300,000,000

0.3141 5926502564646D + 01

4:04:03 USER

400,000,000

0.3141 592651 0897982D + 01

4:54:16 USER

500,000,000

0.31 41 592651 5898004D + 01

6:17:40 USER

600,000,000

0.31415926519231336D + 01

8:08:54 USER

700,000,000

0.3 1 41 5926521 61 2244D + 01

14:38:17 USER

800,000,000

0.3141 5926523397977D + 01

21:16:53 USER

900,000,000

0.3141 5926524786870D + 01

1:21:55 USER 1,000,000,000

0.3141 5926525897955D + 01

1 :21 :55 USER CPU time 7:24:21 .59 Elapsed time 25: 1 1 :24.33

Figure I : Reader Hyde's it calculation batch log.

Equipment Corporation mainframe. 1 ran
it for one billion iterations, which took over
7 hours of CPU time and more than 24
hours to run. I have included the batch log
(figure I). You can see that after one billion
iterations, the value of ir is accurate to
only eight places. I would have to say that
this simple, elegant method for calculating
ir is totally useless for practical calcula-

tions, but it is a clearly understandable
method on a theoretical level. Thank you
for this type of article.

James F. C. Hyde 111
Missoula, MT

Where Credit Is Due

It was with great interest that I read
"Microcomputers in NASA's SIR-B" by

Richard Wilton (July 1985, page 192). The
mission design and operations manager
of this effort, Henry Harris, was an invited
speaker at the 1985 Rochester FORTH
Conference, which*was held in June. How-
ever, I was disappointed to find no men-
tion of Henry in the article, save for two
bibliographic references.

I don't wish to downplay Richard Wil-
ton's contribution to this project, but I
think that it is important to realize that he
was a consultant working under Henry's
and others' direction. 1 appreciate the dif-
ficulty in delineating an individual's con-
tribution to a group project, but it is always
important to give credit.

Lawrence P. Forsley

Rochester FORTH Conference Chairman

Rochester. NY

notes on normal
Distribution

1 wish to thank the readers of BYTE who
took the time to comment on my article
("Simulating the Normal Distribution." Oc-
tober 1985. page 137). The list that follows

(continued)

The Right Tax Software Decision
The Tax Surgeon II - only $89 95

The "Tax Surgeon 11" from TAXbyte, Inc., the people who
provide tax software to tax professionals, goes to work on
your return the moment you input data.

The Tax Surgeon II Features:

• Simple fill-in-the blanks entry

• Full screen display of a fascimile form

• Automatic calculations and carry forward computations of
preprogrammed math and tax tables

• On screen "help" messages to guide you through tax maze

• Prepares and prints up to 5 returns

• Prints on standard government 1040 page 1 and 2 forms -
all other forms computer generated (IRS approved)

Requires IBM-PC, XT, AT, or PCjr (DOS 2.XX or 3.XX)
or 100% compatible computer.

Prepares and Prints:

1040

SCHES

♦F2106

F4136

F6251

SCHA

SCHF

F2119

F4255

F6252

SCHB

SCHG

F2210

*F4562

VV2 List

SCHC

SCHR

F2441

F4797

SCHD

*SCH SE

F3468

F4835

SCHE

SCH W

F3903

F5695

*Will prepare multiple schedules.

DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED

For Faster Service, call 309-764-7245

_ $995.00 TAX COMMISSIONER

Send addl information

_ $89.95 TAX SURGEON 11* -
COPY PROTECTED
Each of the 5 returns can be
modified and updated as
many times as necessary.

- NOT COPY PROTECTED
Professional version for rapid
computation and printing of
thousands of returns. Laser
printing available.
.*Add $10.00 for UPS One
Day Service

Name

Business

Address

City

Check

COD

Stale

Zip Phone No.
VISA

MC

Card No.

Expires

Signature

Tax Software Since 1981

"The right tax software decision"

TAXbyte, inc.

1801 6th Avenue Moline, IL 61265
(309) 764-7245

26 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 322

The IBM upgrade path.

C^f-**

*kd&&-'

&*&i

It's still a great system— in
perfect condition. But now you're
ready to make a deal on your IBM
PC or XT.

Maybe your business needs
have grown, or your new appli-
cation package runs too slow.

Don't dump your present IBM
system. Red River Technology has a
better offer— ATlas— a single-board
plug-in package that transforms jj#
your IBM PC or XT into
a super- AT.

ATlas isn't a semi
compatible plug-in card
but completely trans-
forms your PC or PC XT
into a 100% IBM PC AT
compatible system.

Consider these features:

• 8 or 10 Mhz 80286
CPU. 50-100% more perfor-
mance than IBM's PC AT (switch
selectable— 6, 8, or 10 Mhz)

• IEEE 802.3 standard LAN
option on the base board (your
choice, StarLAN or Ethernet)

• IBM compatible serial port

• IBM compatible parallel port

• 512K memory standard,
expandable to 1.0 megabyte without
using precious 10 expansion slots

• Three 8-bit slots, use more
of your existing add-in boards

• Five CMOS VLSI gate arrays
eliminate over 60 chips to lower
power consumption and improve
reliability

• CAD based design, highest
quality multi-layer board

• Installs in 10 minutes
with nothing but a
regular screwdriver.
Red River Tech-
nology has defined
state-of-the-art in board-
level computers. So don't take
- someone else's best offer for your
IBM PCorXT. Red Riverlechnology
believes an upgrade path should
not be a dead end.

For more information on the
ATlas single-board computers, call
us today, at 817-571-5714.

Kits From

Assembled and
Tested Boards From
Complete System

CALL 817-571-5714

$199

$1295
CALL

Quantity discounts available, lealer and
OEM inquiries welcome. Other unique 8088
and 80186 boards also available. Write
for details.

TERMS: VISA. MASTERCARD. AMERICAN EXPRESS.
CHECK. MONEY ORDER. $5 SHIPPING AND HANDLING
PER ORDER. TEXAS RESIDENTS ADD 6% SALES TAX.

Red River Technology, Inc.

Red River Technology, Inc., 1FW West,
4001 W. Airport Fwy., Suite 500,
Bedford, Texas 76021

Inquiry 282

IHM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. ATlas is a trademark of Red River! technology. Inc.

FEBRUARY 1986 • B Y T E 27

When you

positively

custom

Wr 1 *

rr^ftfl

I

m m i

m if 1

yL«3s~ ■

tj

• 3 ; \T\ ana. smLajM

41 UB II

1 ii ii a Wi

gctrfjr "1

ILI i i

l^JMi^-d

Reliability

is your obvious first requirement in
this vital link between your product
and the outside world. At Ven-Tel
— with 12 years experience and
millions of modems designed and
shipped-we don't take reliability
for granted ...so you can.

Compatibility QuickTiirnaround

with industry standards. All Ven-Tel
modems utilize the industry stan-
dard "AT" command set, guaran-
teeing compatibility with virtually all
types of software. And every Ven-Tel
custom modem is fully compatible
with our complete line of standard
desktop and PC internal modems.
We also meet Bell 21 2A and
CCITT V.22bis standards in speeds
up to 2400 baud.

is more than a phrase to us. We've
built a reputation for meeting prod-
uct deadlines among some of the
nation's largest and most demand-
ing manufacturers. From start to
finish in as little as 90 days, Ven-Tel
can help you get your product to
market quickly. You can even begin
development using our standard
modules while your design is
being finalized.

take a g

1 1 •

d

absolutely,

need reliable
modems...

SI !

I

t.ODDD u^W

if EWf

1 IS W i

lip §

kJUf S

1

; ::

■btaKtfsre-^^-"-^

SS' -1$ 5

;:

^ ^tf^fei ^Br

3^

Customizing

your modem is your choice. From
our standard off-the-shelf boards, to
complete custom design, to licens-
ing our proprietary CMOS chip
design (for quantities in excess of
100,000 annually), we guarantee the
right modem solution based on
your deadline, design and volume
requirements. Custom hardware
configurations and firmware give
you maximum freedom for inte-
grating the modem into your overall
product design.

j-**-*H>

u

JJA

1 — — T

-0>

*-o!o

a.

Compact Size

is an important requirement in
applications like credit check ter-
minals, portable computers and
trouble monitors.Ven-Tel modem
density is state-of-the-art to provide
excellent "real estate" value, with
complete auto-dial/auto-answer,
AT compatible, 212Amodems-
in as little as 12 square inches.
With power requirements as low
as 500mW.

Competitive
Pricing

makes the Ven-Tel custom modem
package one definitely worth looking
into. For quotations based on your
modem specs or a discussion with
our experienced OEM sales engi-
neers, call 800/538-5121 (outside
California). In California, call
408/727-5721. Or contact us for our
custom modem brochure:
Ven-Tel, OEM Products Division,
2342 Walsh Avenue,
Santa Clara, CA 95051.

Inquiry 344

I

• I •

k at VenTel

I

I

Computers For The Blind

Talking computers give blind and visually impaired
people access to electronic information. The question
is how and how much?

The answers can be found in "The Second Beginner's
Guide to Personal Computers for the Blind and Visu-
ally Impaired" published by the National Braille Press.
This comprehensive book contains a Buyer's Guide
to talking microcomputers and large print display
processors. More importantly it includes reviews,
written by blind users, of software that works with
speech.

Send orders to:

National Braille Press Inc., 88 St. Stephen Street
Boston, MA 02115, (617) 266-6160

NBP is a nonprofit braille printing and publishing house.

. :■■■:■;■•.." -

Powerful InCircuit Emulation,
Priced Within Your Budget.
That's NICE"

Remember the NICE™ Z80? Nicolet has added a "+" to give you
full speed, real-time execution, operation up to 8 MHz,
16 hardware breakpoints, 8k of overlay RAM,
histograms and loading of Intel Hex Code.
It even works with the new
Z80C microprocessors. M^rS i^VcoVet-

Designed for system
development, trouble-
shooting, debugging or
testing in the lab, field,
or at home, the NICE Z8(H
simply plugs directly into
the target microprocessor
socket and any RS- 23 2 ter-
minal or terminal emulator.

At $ 1295* the NICE Z80+ gives you the best emulator
price/performance available. For info call 800-NICOLET X259
(outside California) or 415 490-8300 X278 (in California).

^Nicolet

Digital Systems Division

LETTERS

Send check, money order, or VISA/MasterCard to
Nicolet, 201 Fourier, Fremont, Ca. 94539.
C.O.D.s accepted.

•Other NICE emulators for the Z80, 8085, 8088 and NSC800 start at 1550 (68000 available Ql *86).
NICE is a trademark of Nicolet, Digital Systems Division. Z80 is a trademark of Zilog, inc.

is in response to the points made by the
many readers who wrote to me.

1 . Errors. The fourth value in the "Number
of Items" heading in table I on page 138
should have been 0.144 rather than 0.129.

The variable S3X in line 20 of listing I
on page 138 should be S3, as in line 50.

2. Novelty, I'm sorry if readers inferred
that I claimed to have invented the
method. I hadn't seen it in the popular
computer literature and thought it might
be useful.

3. Tkils. The column quote on page 138
says, "There is one thing to watch out for:
extreme values." By examining the tabu-
lated values for the normal distribution,
and other means, the interested user can
determine exactly what is lost by this ap-
proximate method.

4. Accuracy, The method does not gener-
ate a normal distribution. Even with many
terms summed, it is but an approximation
to it. A question that I have not addressed
(because I don't know how to) is, "How can
one specify, for a simulation application,
the accuracy required of a 'simulated' nor-
mal distribution?"

One simple method is to use some chi-
squared criterion, but the method of the
article yields some pretty good numbers
on that score. Perhaps BYTE readers might
have suggestions for answers to the
"specification" question.

5. Better Methods, Several of these were
suggested by readers. The most frequently
cited was that of Box and Muller. Daniel
Zwillinger provided the BASIC code for
its implementation as shown in listing
I.

In his letter, Derek Stubbs suggested two
more methods, one of which I simply
quote without comment: "In BASIC,
M*LOG(RND/RND) will return a normally
distributed variable with a mean of zero
and a variance of 2*M*M."

Finally, it was not my intent to contribute
to the literature of statistics; I just ran into
something rather neat and wanted to
share it. Nor is it now my intention to be-
come a clearinghouse for information on
the subject. But a lot of thoughtful peo-
ple put considerable effort into drafting
their comments, and it would be a shame
for their work to be wasted. Therefore, I've
got about 20 pages of copies of cor-
respondence on this matter. I make this
offer to your readers:

IF (You are that interested in the subject
AND you send me a very large self-
addressed envelope with a buck's postage
on it AND you send along 3 bucks for

[continued)

30 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 244

• _ » * » ' •• n *■ .

:■:•:-:•:•;•:•:-:

:V::AV::;:::-:::::

:.:::.:::J:::::.*:::::.:'.

••••••• *!*♦*!•. *!•!•.•*•

iiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiii

:::.V.:V:V:S::S::::

«» j« ;* ;».;•;.;•.. « B . m »

::::::::::;::•.:::.•.*::::

• ••■•••••■•••••••••■••••I"

•••••••■••••••••••J •!•!■

«•••.•«•!*•*••. ♦••••!•••

:!:::i:i::J::i:::::::;::

:«:-:«:

OOx!

sss*

«. * cm*

*****

m***-»«"-»****»**m**^*'»**»

**mm*miX"X.x c "■ ******

-;**■
«;*j*

* »

*.*;*_».

c«c^:*

s«

.«£

* r*^ »_
******

*«*#",*** ■"

STARE AT THIS

FOR 18.5 SECONDS.

THANK YOU.

YOITVE JUST DEMONSTRATED

THE BEST REASON

TO OWN A HYPERDRIVE.

It takes 1 8.5 seconds to start
MacWrite on a regular 512K Macintosh.
And only 5.5 seconds on the worlds
fastest Macintosh-namely, one with
HyperDrive.

To demonstrate the second best
reason to own a HyperDrive, stack fifty
diskettes atop one another. HyperDrive
holds up to that much data without
enlisting outside help from any disk-
ettes at all.

The next demonstration will
require a little imagination. Imagine a
Macintosh with software that protects
your data by copying it onto diskettes.

A print spooler that lets you go on to
other jobs while your printer is occupied.
And a security program that protects
your files from unauthorized entry.
You've just imagined a Macintosh
with HyperDrive.

The next demonstration requires
no imagination at all. Just stare at your
Macintosh. Since HyperDrive is the
only hard disk that's installed inside the
Mac, it's the only one that preserves
the Mac's appearance and portability.

But for the most convincing
demonstration of all, perform this
simple operation: Visit an authorized

*ln Canada, call our distributor at (800) 565-1267. © 1986 General Computer Corp. HyperDrive, the General Computer Corp. logo and The
Apple and MacWrite are trademarks of Apple Computer. Inc. Macintosh is a trademark licensed to Apple Computer. Inc.

General Computer dealer. He'll show
you all the reasons why HyperDrive is,
in the words of Macworld, "the hap-
piest marriage of the Macintosh and a
hard disk!'

For further details, call us at
(800) 422-01 01 or (617) 492-5500*

x GENERAL
COMPUTER

The leading edge starts here.

leading edge starts here are trademarks of General Computer Corp.

Inquiry 143

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 31

LETTERS

Listing

I: Reader Zwillinger's Box and Muller BASIC code.

10

MN =

= 5 : SD = 1.5 : REM desired parameters

20

X1 =

= RND(1) : X2 = RND(1)

30

R =

SQR( -2 * LOG(X1))

40

T =

2 * 3.14159 *X2

50

R1 =

MN + SD *R*SIN(T) : R2 = MN + SD*R

>COS(T)

60

REM The mean of R1 and R2 is MN.

70

REM Their standard deviation is SD.

DISCOVER the LAN
of ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENC E

PROLOG V

Interpreter for MS-DOS/ PC-DOS

At last! A Prolog with enough muscle to handle
real-world applications for UNDER $100! Discover
why Japan has chosen Piolog as the vehicle for their
"Fifth Generation Machine" project to design
intelligent computers.

CHOOSE FROM TWO GREAT VERSIONS:

PROLOG V-flus

$9995

□ More Than 100 Predefined

Predicates
D Large Memory Model (to 640K)
d Floating Point Arithmetic
o 150-Page User's Manual and

Tutorial plus Advanced

Programming Documentation
a Co-Resident Program Editor
a Calls to Coresident Programs
d Text and Graphic Screen

Manipulation

STANDARD FEATURES ON BOTH:

o Clocksin & Mellish-Standard ° Dynamic Memory Management

Edinburgh Syntax. (garbage collection)

d Extensive Interactive Debugging ° Custom-Designed Binder
Facilities and Slipcase

THE CHOICE OF UNIVERSITIES

Generous university site licenses and an excellent teaching tutorial and
reference guide have made PROLOG V the choice of universities nationwide.
Call for details.

PROLOG V

$6995

o 70 Predefined Predicates
Q Small Memory Model
Q Integer Arithmetic
o 122-Page User's Manual
and Tutorial

FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE
Programming in Prolog
by Chcksin & Meliish, $17. 95 value
Available with purchase o( PROLOG
V-Plus only. Offer valid through
March 31, 1986. ^h^mUI

PHONE ORDERS: 1-800-621-0852 EXT 468

CA residents add 6% sales tax

r

■ D PAYMENT ENCLOSED $
D CHARGE

I Card No. _
| Signature

■ Mr. /Mrs./ Ms.

i

"l

□ MasterCard D Visa
Exp. Date

PROLOG V-Plus $99.95 m

' PROLOG V 69.95 I

UPGRADE ONLY 40.00 ■

Return lactory diskette and
$30 plus $10 Handling

Address

(please print lull name)

City/State/Zip

SHIPPING:
. I 5.00 U.S.
7.50 Canada
10.00 Carnbean,
Hawaii Air
20.00 Overseas Air

COD Oiders Not Accepted

. 15 day check clearance

Upgrade

to PROLOG V-Pius
for only the differ enti
in price plus a
handling charge.

NO RISK OFFER
Examine the documentation
at our risk for 30 days. If
not fully satisfied, return
with disk still sealed for
full refund.

c

CHALCEDONY
SOFTWARE

5580 LA JOLLA BLVD.

SUITE 126 B

LA JOLLA, CA

92037

(619) 483-8513

copying fees) THEN (I'll send you copies
of all the neat stuff) ENDIF.

For their efforts, I wish to thank Louis
Baker and Larry Marshall, Joel W. Young
and William Satzer, Derek F. Stubbs, Daniel
Zwillinger, William I. Coderre. Philip S.
Waid, Moshe Braner, and Ed Sarver.

Arthur G. Hansen
Oak Park, IL

Debugging Mathematical
Theorems

1 would like to thank Dr. John Darlington
for his informative and readable article
("Program Transformation," August 1985
BYTE, page 201). However, it contains one
statement that certainly needs to be
debugged: "No one feels the need to
debug a mathematical theorem . ..." 1 do.
According to Douglas R. Hofstadter's
book, Gbdel Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden
Braid (Basic Books, 1979. page 91). there
are at least 28 published "proofs" stating
that Euclid's fifth (parallel) postulate
follows from the other four.

In spite of good debugging, it is obvious-
ly possible for someone working in one
of the most mathematical aspects of com-
puter science to take some things for
granted and overlook a statement that
sorely misrepresents the way mathematics
is really done. Actually, 1 really assume that
John Darlington also feels the need to
debug mathematical theorems as well as
BYTE articles.

TVlOMAS LlGON

Munich, West Germany

John Darlington replies:
I agree. There is no guarantee of absolute
certainty even in mathematics. Each
"proof" needs another proof to establish
that the first was conducted correctly
leading to an infinite regress. In practical
mathematics this infinite regress is re-
placed by social review leading to a
debugging process that can always show
the incorrectness of a proof but never its
complete correctness.

In turn, however, 1 would expect Dr.
Ligon to agree that that existence of for-
mal systems enables practical mathe-
matics to be currently vastly more reli-
able than practical programming. It is this
reliability we are aiming for via transfor-
mation, not absolute certainty, if the for-
mal manipulations are machine-checked
or -generated, then the degree of relia-
bility goes up. Perhaps if we prove our
transformation system correct we would
be better off as long as we prove the veri-
fication system used and then ....

(continued on page 355)

32 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 61 for End-Users. Inquiry 62 for DEALERS ONLY.

THEMRECr
BENEFITS OF BUYING

SOFTWARE

* HARDWARE OIRECT

FROM LOGICSOFl

FREE OVERNIGHT DELIVERY.

Buy it today ... use it tomorrow! At Logicsoft, we know you want your
new product as fast as possible. That's why only Logicsoft ships your
order the same day via Purolator Overnight Courier* ... at no additional
cost to you! You not only save money, you save valuable time, too.

OUR LOWEST PRICE GUARANTEE.

We're so confident about our low prices that if you can find a lower price well

beat it by $10? This offer includes any legitimate advertised price or quote on any

of the hundreds of products we stock. And we stock only the latest versions. All factory

sealed with the manufacturer's warranty. Our Corporate Accounts Program also offers

attractive volume discounts. And we accept purchase orders from qualified institutions.

They're two more reasons why Logicsoft has become the major supplier of hardware and software to more

than 50,000 companies worldwide, including over 90% of the Fortune 1000.

TOLL-FREE CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Customer service and technical support is only a toll-free call away
before and after the sale. Our customer service representatives can
instantly recall your ordering information from our on-line terminals.
So they can answer your questions quickly and efficiently. Our technical
people are standing by to help answer questions on any product we carry.

Logicsoft gives you much more than great prices and fast delivery. We give

you peace of mind as well.

'Applies to order totaling over $100. Shipped UPS — free if under $100 (within Cont. U.S.). Due to weight restrictions, systems, printers and monitors are also shipped UPS— free.
r This offer does not apply to items under $100, American Express or Terms orders. In these instances, we will meet any lower price.

To order or receive technical assistance, call our National Hotline: 1-800-645-3491 NY State: 516-249-8440

__ Customer Service: 1-800-431-9037

Circle #400 on reader service card.

FREE 90-OM, OH-SITE
SERVICE ON ALL SYSTEMS.

On all systems, Logicsoft offers something no other direct distributor does: a free-90-day, on-site service
contract. We've contracted with SORBUS, a Bell Atlantic Company, to service your system — at your facility —
if a problem arises. SORBUS is one of the world's largest and most respected independent computer
maintenance firms, servicing over 325,000 computer installations. Wherever you are. Whatever the problem.
Expert technical assistance is only a phone call away.

IBM-PC PELUXE-$2,229

• 256Kb Ram Memory • Two DSDD 360K Floppy Disk Drives • Half Height 10Mb Internal Hard Disk • Hard
Disk Controller • Five Expansion Slots • IBM-PC Keyboard • 90-Day, On-Site Sorbus
Service Contract • Color Or Monochrome Monitor Available As Option

IBM PC/XT-$2,349

• 256Kb Ram Memory • DSDD 360K Floppy Disk Drive • 10Mb Internal Hard Disk

• Hard Disk Controller • Eight Expansion Slots • IBM PC/XT Keyboard • 90-Day, On-
Site Sorbus Service Contract • Color Or Monochrome Monitor Available As Option

IBM PC/AT EHHAHCE0-$3,89S

512Kb Ram Memory (Exp. to 3Mb) • 1.2Mb Floppy Disk Drive • 20Mb
Internal Hard Disk (Optional 30Mb) • Eight Expansion Slots • Hard Disk
Controller • IBM 84 Key AT Keyboard • Optional 20Mb Stream Tape
Back-up • 90-Day, On-Site Sorbus Service Contract

Color Or Monochrome Monitor Available ^

As Option ^^

comma

COMPAQ PORTABLE
HARD DISK SYSTEM -$2,495

• 256Kb Ram Memory • DSDD 360Kb Floppy Disk Drive f=
• 10Mb Internal Hard Disk • Hard Disk Controller • 90-Day,
On-Site Sorbus Service Contract • 9" Text/Graphics Monitor Included

COMPAQ PORTABLE 286 MODEL 2-$4,249

• 640K Ram Memory • 1.2Mb Floppy Disk Drive • 20Mb Internal Hard Disk Drive • 80286 Based CPU

• 9" Text/Graphics Monitor Included • 90-Day, On-Site Sorbus Service Contract

COMPAQ PORTABLE DUAL DISK SYSTEMS -$2,239

• 256Kb Ram Memory • Two DSDD 360Kb Floppy Disk Drives • 9" High Resolution
Text/Graphics Monitor Included • 90-Day, On-Site Sorbus Service Contract

COMPAQ 0ESKPR0-$2,S49

8086 Board CPU • 256K Ram Memory • 360K Floppy Disk Drive • 10 Mb
Hard Disk • Hard Disk Controller • COMPAQ Dual Mode Monitor • 90-Day
On-Site Sorbus Service Contract

COMPAQ 286 OESKPRO- $4,349

• 80286 Based CPU • 640K Ram Memory • 1.2 Ms Floppy Disk Drive
20 Mb Hard Disk • Hard Disk Controller • COMPAQ Dual Mode
Monitor • 90-Day, On-Site Sorbus Service Contract

IBM MONOCHROME OPTIOH 1-$249 Monochrome Graphics Display Card.
AMDEK 310A Monitor: Parallel Port.
IBM MOHOCHROME OPTIOH 2-$349 Monochrome Graphics Display Card. IBM Mono-
chrome Monitor Parallel Port.
IBM COLOR OPTIOH 1-$$$9 Color Graphics Display Card. Princeton RGB HX-12 Monitor Parallel Port.
IBM COLOR OPTIOH 2-$6S9 Color Graphics Card. IBM Color Monitor: Parallel Port.

AT&T 6300 SERIES AVAILABLE.

@^

|3 ■ No surcharge for MasterCard, VISA, American Express. COD., money order or check • PCs accepted ... no surcharge (please call for price verification)
"" • No sales tax on orders shipped outside N.Y. State • Please add 2% for insurance and handling (Int'l orders add'l) • All products covered by mfg's warranty
• We do not bill until we ship.

IBM PC" AT'" and PC/XT'" are trademarks and IBM® is a registered trademark of Internationa! Business Machines Corporation. COMPAQ* is a registered trademark of
Compaq Computer Corporation. «...«-««

Circle #400 on reader service card.

SOFTWARE FOR VIRTUALLY
EVERY IBM-PC APPLICATION.

FREE OVERNIGHT DELIVERY. LOWEST PRICE GUARANTEE. TOLL FREE CUSTOMER SERVICE.

WORD PROCESSING

Wordstar $185

Wordstar 2000 259

WORDSTAR 2000 PLUS . 305

Wordstar Pro Pac 255

WORD PERFECT

(New Release) 219

Microsoft Word 249

Multimate 245

MULTIMATE ADVANTAGE 275

Volkswriter Deluxe 159

Easywriter ll/Speller/

Mailer 199

Edix & Wordix 255

Finalword 209

Samna III 335

Xy Write II Plus 219

Think Tank 125

Pfs: Write 85

DATA BASE MANAGEMENT
KNOWLEDGEMAN/2 . . . $329

CORNERSTONE 275

Tim IV 199

d Base II 295

R:BASE 5000 355

R: BASE 5000 (Runtime) . 255

d BASE III 379

CLIPPER (d Base

III Compiler) 389

Data Base Manager II
(alpha) 169

Friday 179

pfs: file & pfs: report 165

REVELATION 715

Revelation Networx (1-4). 1,195

Powerbase 199

PARADOX Call for Price

Reflex 59

INTEGRATED/
SPREADSHEETS

LOTUS 1-2-3 (v2.0) $319

Enable (New Version) 355

Ability 299

FRAMEWORK II 415

Electric Desk 209

SYMPHONY 439

Supercalc 3 185

Multiplan 129

pfs: plan 85

FINANCIAL
DOLLARS AND SENSE . $115
Managing Your Money .... 115
Howard Tax Preparer '86
Call for Price

GRAPHICS

CHARTMASTER $229

Signmaster 185

pfs: graph 85

GRAPHWRITER $329

DIAGRAM MASTER ... $195

Microsoft Chart 179

ENERGRAPHICS $249

PC Draw 219

Gem Draw (incl. Desk Top) . . 95

PROJECT SCHEDULERS
MICROSOFT PROJECT . $229

SuperProject (IUS) 225

HARVARD TOTAL

PROJECT MGR $275

Project Scheduler 5000

(Scitor) 289

Project Scheduler Network 395
Timeline 275

LANGUAGES/UTILITIES
CONCURRENT PC DOS

(w/windows) $185

PL/1-(DR) 489

LATTICE C. COMPILER . $275

TURBO PASCAL $39

Pascal Compiler (MS) .... 199

C Compiler (MS) 265

Cobol Compiler (MS) 399

Business Basic (MS) 309

FORTRAN COMPILER

(MS) $239

C86 C Compiler

(Computer Innovations) . 309
Microsoft Macro

Assembler 109

P-Mate 189

P-Link 86 319

JUNIOR CORNER

Lotus 1-2-3 Junior $319

MISC. UTILITIES

FANCY FONT $155

Wordplus (Oasis) 119

pfs: proof 65

Punctuation & Style 99

Quickode III 149

Quick Report 159

d Graph III 149

DUtillll 65

K Graph 175

K Paint 85

K Text 109

Clout 2 149

Extended Report Writer . . . 119

Sideways 45

PROKEY 4.0 $89

Norton Utilities

(New Release) 59

SIDEKICK (unprotected).. $65
CROSSTALK XVI

(New Release) $115

Remote 109

Smartcom II 109

Sideways 45

SUPERKEY $45

Copy II PC 39

DESK ORGANIZER $65

ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS

Information Unlimited

(IUS)

Open
Systems

Great
Plains

Peachtree
Series 8

State of
The Art

Realworld

(MBSI)

BPI

Accounts Payable

$299

$359

$459

$345

$479

$359

$359

Accounts Receivable

299

359

459

345

479

359

359

Fixed Assets

—

359

—

345

—

—

—

General Ledger

299

359

459

345

479

359

359

Inventory

299

359

459

345

479

359

359

Job Costing

—

359

459

345

—

—

359

Material Management

—

359

—

—

—

—

—

Order Entry/Processing

299

359

—

345

479

359

—

Payroll

365

359

459

345

479

359

359

Report Writer

—

359

—

—

—

—

—

Sales Invoicing

—

359

—

345

479

—

—

Purchase Order Entry

—

359

—

—

—

—

—

TCS Client Ledger System

$1195

GNPCPA + Requires 1 2 3

$379

All prices and policies subject to change without notice.

CAN'T FIND IT? ASK FOR OUR SPECIAL ORDER DEPT.

If you can't find the product you want here or you think it's not available through the mail, ask for our Special Order Department.
There's a good chance we do carry the product (we're adding new ones every day). Or, we can get it for you from one of c-ur
suppliers — still at our low direct-to-you prices.

110 Bi-County Blvd., Dept. 543
Farmingdale, NY 11735
CANADA: 416-283-2354
Domestic/lnt'l Telex
286905 SoftUR

To order or receive technical assistance, call our National Hotline

1-800-645-3491

NY State: 516-249-8440
Customer Service: 1-800-431-9037

Pii-/»lo 4f-A,C\C\ nn roarlor corn/iro rurt\

EUROPE: 020-83.48.64

Telex: 10759 Logic NL

Mail orders to:

LOGICSOFT EUROPE BV

pb 9460, 1006 AL Amsterdam, Holland

PERIPHERALS TO EXPAND YOUR
SYSTEMS & CAPABILITIES.

FREE OVERNIGHT DELIVERY. LOWEST PRICE GUARANTEE. TOLL FREE CUSTOMER SERVICE.

PRINTERS*
EPSON

LQ150CT $879

LQ1500 Sheet Feeder (Cut) 395

JX-80 499

LX-80 229

LX-80 Tractor/Feeder 30

RX-100 399

FX-85 349

FX-185(New) 479

JUKI

6100 $365

6300 689

NEC

8850 $1,459

Pinwriter P2 559

Pinwriter P3 895

OKIDATA

182 Plug&Play $219

192 Plug&Play 349

193 Plug&Play 555

2410 Plug & Play 1,749

SILVER REED

770 $699

TOSHIBA

P351 Tractor $175

P351 999

1340 449

CITIZEN

MSP10 $279

MSP25 519

MONITORS*
AMDEX

Color 300 $245

Color 500 389

Color 600 415

Color 710 559

12" Green 300G 125

12" Amber 300A 145

12" Amber 310A 149

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

RGB HX-12 $429

RGB SR-12 569

Scan Doubler Board

(for SR-12) 185

Amber Max-12E 179

QUADRAM

Quadscreen 17" $1,459

Amberchrome 12" 155

TAXAN

122 139

620 Call for Price

640 Call for Price

MULTI-FUNCTION BOARDS
AST RESEARCH

Six Pak Plus (384k) $259

Six Pak Plus (64k) 239

Mega Plus II (64k) 275

'Due to weight restrictions, Printers and Monitors are shipped UPS — free.

Mega Pak (256k) 369

Advantage (128k) 409

I/O Plus II 129

EVEREX

Magic Card II (64k) $175

STB

Chauffeur $265

TECMAR

Captain (64k) $189

Captain (384k) 199

QUADRAM

Quadboard (384K) $275

Goldboard Call for Price

Silverboard .... Call for Price

COMMUNICATIONS BOARDS
AST

AST-5251-11 $709

DCA

IRMA Board $839

QUADRAM

Quadlink $339

GRAPHICS BOARDS
AST

Monograph plus $425

Preview 249

EVEREX

Graphics Edge $269

The Edge 249

HERCULES

Graphics Card $299

Color Card 149

PARADISE SYSTEMS

Multi-Display Card $215

Modular Graphics Card . . . 255
QUADRAM

Quadcolor I $195

Quadcolor II 465

SIGMA

Color 400 (Princeton) . . . $499

STB

Graphics Plus II $259

TECMAR

Graphics Master $429

MODEMS
HAYES

Smartmodem 300 .$165

Smartmodem 1200 389

Smartmodem 1200B

w/Smartcom II 365

Smartmodem 2400 639

PROMETHEUS

Pro-modem 1200 $299

Pro-Modem 1200B 259

QUADRAM

Quadmodem Series

Call for Price
RACAL-VADIC
2400 PC $635

VEN-TEL

PC Modem Half Card.... $375
1200 Plus 399

MEMORY STORAGE
IOMEGA

Bernoulli Box (20mb) . . $2,389

MOUSE INPUT DEVICES
MOUSE SYSTEMS

PC Mouse w/DR Halo II . . $135
MICROSOFT

Microsoft Mouse (Serial) . $135
Microsoft Mouse (Buss) . . . 135

SURGE PROTECTORS
KENSINGTON MICROWARE

Masterpiece $95

CURTIS

Diamond $39

Emerald 49

Sapphire 59

Ruby 69

KEYBOARDS
KEYTRONIC

5150 $159

5151 (Deluxe) 175

5149 49

JUNIOR CORNER

Keytronic Junior 5151 . . . $169

HARD DISK DRIVES
EVEREX

Everdisk 10 Mb Int $525

Everdisk 20 Mb Int 575

MAYNARD ELECTRONICS

Pci 10 Mb Int $539

Ati 20 Mb Int 775

MICROSCIENCE

10 Mb Int $495

20 Mb Int 525

MOUNTAIN COMPUTER

CORP

Dynamic Disk 10 Mb Ext. $1,475

PRIAM CORP

Innerspace Id 40 Ext. . . $1,250

SIGMA

Hard Disk Kit 10 Mb Int. . $725

TALLGRASS TECHNOLOGY

Tc 5525i 25 Mb Int $849

SEAGATE

10 Mb 1/2 Ht. Int $475

20 Mb 1/2 Ht. Int 495

CARTRIDGE TAPE BACK-UP
ALLOY

PC Qictape Ext. 70 Mb . $1,749

PC Back Up Ext. 20 Mb . 1,649

CORVUS

The Bank 100 Mb $1,729

"Parallel interface req. , . . Ask sales agent.

EVEREX

Excel Stream 20 Mb Int. . $639
Excel Stream 60 Mb Int. . . 929
Excel Stream 60 Mb Ext. . 989
IRWIN

Irwin 110 10 Mb Int $595

KAMMERMAN LABS
The Flight Tape Series

60 Mb $1,675

The Flight Tape Series

10 Mb 1,195

MAYNARD ELECTRONICS
Maynstream 20 Ext. . . . $1,139

Maynstream At-20 Int 949

SYSGEN

External 10 Mb $845

TALLGRASS TECHNOLOGIES
Tg 4060 w/controller

card $1,495

TECMAR

Qic 60 At $1,275

HARD DISK TAPE
BACK-UP SUBSYSTEM
ALLOY

PC Qicstor 30/60 .... $3,495
Microstor 20/20 2,275

KAMMERMAN LABS

Masterflight 10/10.... $1,795

Masterflight 60/60 3,849

SIGMA

Stand Alone Winchester:

Tape 20/45 $2,675

SYSGEN INDUSTRIES
Sysgen Plus $2,875

LOGICSOFT PRODUCTS

Logicboard (six pak &

equiv.) $129

Logicboard AT (Advantage

equiv.) $279

Logicmodem 1200B (Hayes

equiv.) $195

FLOPPY DISK DRIVES

Tandon TM-100 360 K

1/2 Ht $109

Teac55B360K 1/2 Ht.... 95
Toshiba 360 K 1/2 Ht.... 109
CDC 360 K 1/2 Ht 109

BACK UP POWER SUPPLIES
DATA SHIELD

200 Wt. (PC) $249

300 Wt. (XT) 359

500 Wt. (AT).. 559

GRIZZLY

200 Wt. (PC) $475

300 Wt. (XT) 495

500 Wt. (AT) 695

All prices and policies subject to change without notice.

110 Bi-County Blvd., Dept. 543
Farmingdale, NY 11735
CANADA: 416-283-2354
Domestic/lnt'l Telex
286905 SoftUR

To order or receive technical assistance, call our National Hotline:

1-800-645-3491

NY State: 516-249-8440
Customer Service: 1-800-431-9037
Circle #400 on reader service card.

EUROPE: 020-83.48.64

Telex: 10759 Logic NL

Mail orders to:

LOGICSOFT EUROPE BV

pb 9460, 1006 AL Amsterdam, Holland

FIXES AND UPDATES

BYTE's BUGS

More on Quicksort

The QSORT (Quicksort) program in Tim
Field's review of five C compilers for the
Macintosh (November 1985. page 275} is
in error. Source code for the corrected ver-
sion is in listing I. This code is also
available from BYTEnet Listings: the tele-

phone number is (617) 861-9764.

If you run this Quicksort through the
compilers benchmarked by the old ver-
sion, you will get different timings. How-
ever, you won't see a change in their
relative standings. The goal of a bench-

mark is not to test a compiler's ability to
generate a program that efficiently ex-
ecutes a specific algorithm; the objective
is to test its ability to translate the source-
code representation of any algorithm into
efficient machine code.

Listing 1 : The corrected version of BYTE's QSORT

/* sorting benchmark— calls randomly the number of times
specified by MAXIMUM to create an array of long
integers, then does a quicksort on the array of longs. The
program does this for the number of times specified by
COUNT.

*/

#include "stdio.h"

#define MAXNUM 100

#define COUNT 10

#define MODULUS ((long) 0x20000)

#define C 13849L
#define A 251 73L

long seed = 7L;

long random ();

long buffer [MAXNUM] = {0};

main ()

{

int i, j;

long temp;
/'

#include "startup. c"
•/

printf ("Filling array and sorting °/od times \n" (

COUNT);

for (i = 0; i < COUNT: + + j)

{

for (j = 0; j < MAXNUM: + + j)

{

temp = random (MODULUS);
if (temp < OL)

temp = (-temp);
bufferO] = temp;

}

printf ("Buffer full, iteration °/od\n", i);

quick (0, MAXNUM, buffer);

r

#include "done.c"
*/

}

quick (lo, hi, base)
int lo, hi;
long base [ ];

{ '

int i, j;

long pivot, temp;

hi - 1 , pivot = base [hi]; i < j;)

(lo < hi)

{

for (i = lo,

{

while (i < hi && base [i] < = pivot)

+ + i;
while (j > lo && base [j] > = pivot)

- -j;

if (i < j)

{

temp = base [i];
base [i] = base [j];
base [j] = temp;

}

temp = base [i];
base [i] = base [hi];
base [hi] = temp;
quick (lo, i - 1 , base);
quick (i + 1, hi, base);

long random (size)
long size;

seed = seed * A + C;
return (seed °/o size);

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 33

DATA INDEPENDENCE

MUCH SMALL

f The Age of Data Independence ,u dawned

w^^r^^w a ' )0Ut two y ears a ^° w ^ en 'OMEGA
Ig, | Ju introduced a revolutionary mass storage
^k Jj A device called The Bernoulli Box® Featuring
w^^^^^k a unique technology that uses rugged,
removable 10-megabyte cartridges, it freed companies to work
more productively and economically-and was soon recognized
as the decade's biggest step forward in business data storage.

Today, IOMEGA has taken another giant step. With the
addition of the compact 20-megabyte-per-cartridge Bernoulli
Boxes, in single- and dual-drive versions, the Data Independ-
ence family gets simultaneously bigger and smaller. The new
Bernoulli Boxes double on-line capacity to up to 40 megabytes
and cut the space required to carry and store data cartridges.
They also boast a footprint that is literally half that of the pre-
vious version, freeing just that much more valuable desk space.

But what makes the new Bernoulli Box so exciting are the
same features that made it the new standard in data
management to begin with.

TRANSPORTABILITY
The Bernoulli Box cartridges are completely
interchangeable. You're free to take the
cartridge from one and use it in another with

complete confidence. Thke it across the hall or mail it across the

continent

EXPANDABILITY
Free yourself from the limitations of system
capacity. If you need more, you expand by
buying slim, inexpensive cartridges, not bulky
and costly hardware.

RELIABILITY

Incredible resistance to shock and vibration
combined with a rugged cartridge format frees
you from concerns about equipment failure,
head crash, or data loss.

T

34 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

B

\A

MORE GIANT STEPS.
IR FOOTPRINTS.

/■>

m

PERFORMANCE.
The amazing speed of The Bernoulli Box-
with access times and transfer rates that rival
and often surpass the best hard disk drives-
translates into the best freedom of all: the freedom of time. And
now The Bernoulli Box offers users the option of booting from
The Bernoulli Box cartridge with any of the IBM PC or
compatible computers.

E

SECURITY

Free your sensitive files, such as payroll and

personnel, from unauthorized scrutiny and

free yourself from unnecessary anxiety. Put

them on a Bernoulli Box cartridge, and put the cartridge where

you know it will be safe.

Check out the latest Bernoulli Box family members today. More
giant steps towards the complete data independence of
businesses using the IBM PC, XT, AT, most compatibles, and the
Macintosh? 1U Giant steps with very small footprints.

For the dealer nearest you, call 1-800-556-1234, exL 215. In
California, call 1-800-441-2345, exL 215.

*The Bernoulli Box for Macintosh is available in a 5-megabyte single-drive version and a
20- megabyte dual-drive version for AppleTalk.™

The Bernoulli Box is a registered trademark of IOMEGA Corporation. Data Independence is a trademark of IOMEGA
Corporation. Macintosh is a trademark licensed to Apple Computer, Inc. AppleTalk is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.

DULU

LMzGA

IOMEGA Corporation
1821 West 4000 South
Roy, Utah 84067

Inquiry 170

K"

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 35

We've Earned The Right To Be #f

By Being First So Often

When it comes to being FIRST with technology-leading
products Advanced Digital wears its #1 button with pride.
We were FIRST to introduce an 8-Bit, single board S-100
computer . . . We were FIRSTto introduce a 6MHz, 1 28KByte
single board computer . . . We were FIRST to introduce a
6MHz, 128KByte Slave Processor board. Our record of
FIRSTS continues with . . .

• The introduction of MULTI SLAVE - a 3 USER, 8MHz
SLAVE card for the S-100 Bus systems running Turbo-
Dos™orNETWORK/OS: M

• The introduction of 01, the all new hard disk
controller for the S-100 BUS.

• The introduction of SUPER 16, a 16-Bit, S-100 Slave
card for use with Turbo-Dos or NETWORK O/S.

• The introduction of our new 1 86- the FIRST
16-Bit, single board S-100 computer that performs at
twice the speed of older technologies. Loaded with
features such as on-board floppy disk controller and
up to 1 MByte of RAM, the SUPER 186 is designed to
function as a bus Slave or Master. Advanced Digital's
SUPER 186 permits you to take advantage of vast
libraries of sophisticated applications software.

Again, we were #f with . . .

• The introduction of ; SLAVE, an IBM PC Multiuser
card with 8088 (8MHz) CPU and 256-768K RAM
on board.

fcy~~~~~rczT\l

When it comes to selecting your S-100 boards, go with
Advanced Digital - the recognized industry leader.

See your local computer dealer or contact Advanced
Digital today for more information on the new PC-SLAVE,
and the complete line of S-100 single board computers and
multiuser systems.

? ADVANCED Leading

the Microcomputer
XTlON Technology

Advanced Digital • 5432 Production Drive, Huntington Beach, CA 92649 • Tel. (714) 891-4004 • Telex 183210 ADVANCED HTBH
Advanced Digital U.K. Ltd. • 27 Princes St., Hanover Square • London WIR8NQ« United Kingdom • (01)409-0077 •(01)409-3351 • Teiex 265840 FINEST

Toll Free (1-800) 251-1801
(Outside California)

OTlOTlfj

iifitni

miiiiim

il

I

IB

i

1

* 'i

'A

if.

SEE

US AT

ATLANTA

COMDEX

'86

nWTMT

■•/■' :L

■l^^\

**35tt-'

i. I

rademark of CBIS
igffcap* -Digitg.1 @fe$earch §s
TurboDOS ts^a trad^a7£o£ Software 2000

«M1I

ADVANCED I

WHAT'S NEW

Painting and
Animation for the
Amiga

Aegis Development has
introduced Aegis Im-
ages, a paint program for
the Commodore Amiga. The
program will produce paint-
ings in either the Amiga's
640- by 200-dot or 320- by
200-dot resolution. In one
painting, you can use up to
32 colors from the range of
4096. You can mix colors on
the palette or choose those
already present. Aegis
Images has 20 brushes, in-
cluding an airbrush, and 16
patterns, all of which can be
modified. A tile-draw feature
creates 8- by 8-pixel to 16-
by 16-pixel patterns.

You can use colors in
many ways while painting
with Images. The Spread
function allows dithering of
two or more colors in any
area on screen. Wash gives
a watercolor effect by blend-
ing the colors together at
their borders. And Smear
simply smears colors to-
gether. Another option out-
lines one color with a corre-
sponding color to create a
glowing effect. Finally, two
color-cycling features let you
have sequences of colors
cycle through your painting;
Cycle Draw leaves a trail of
colors as your brush moves
across the screen, and Cycle
Colors gives your painting
an animated effect by
cycling colors through de-
fined areas on the screen.

With Images you can draw
freehand, using brushes, or
select from a set of shapes
that you can customize later.
A Rubber-band Arch option
lets you "pull" a straight line
into an arch. The Frame op-

Examples of Aegis \mages graphics capability.

tion lets you take any por-
tion of the screen and rotate
it, stretch it, shrink it, or use
it as a paintbrush.

When creating or editing
your painting, you can open
a window to show a portion
of the screen in fat bits. You
can superimpose a grid on
paintings to help place ob-
jects precisely, and you can
use the Pantograph Drawing
option to duplicate images
already drawn. The Mirror

feature is for creating sym-
metrical designs.

Images is bundled with
the Aegis Animator, a real-
time metamorphic animation
package. It lets you create
and manipulate different
shapes, colors, sizes, and
relative positions of objects
on the screen. To facilitate
editing objects in different
planes, the Animator lets
you turn fill patterns on and
off so you can work on ob-
jects that are currently
behind other objects.

Using the Animator, you
can change an object's posi-

tion relative to the current
plane of activity, rotate it
around an x- or tf-axis or
around a point within itself,
or combine different mo-
tions. You can split the
screen into nine separate
animations, cut objects from
one animation and paste
them into another, or splice
whole animations together.
Objects can be "cloned,"
enlarged, or shrunk. You can
stretch them at existing
points or added points. And
you can run animations
showing the object in its
original shape, then growing
to the stretched shape.

You can use files pro-
duced by Aegis Images (or
other paint packages sup-
porting the Interchange File
Format) with Aegis Ani-
mator. Aegis Images and
Aegis Animator use 300K
bytes of memory each. The
Animator package, including
Images, costs $139.95.
Images alone costs $79.95.

Contact Aegis Develop-
ment Inc.. 2210 Wilshire
Blvd.. Suite 277, Santa
Monica, CA 90403, (213)
306-0735.
Inquiry 550.

— Brenda McLaughlin

Low-Cost UNIX
for PCs

Microport Systems has
introduced System
V/AT a full adaptation of
UN IX System V release 2 for
the IBM PC AT. System V/AT
is a full implementation of
AT&T's UNIX System V
iAPX286. which was ported
from the VAX version of the
UNIX operating system.

[continued]

Inquiry 8 for End-Users.
— Inquiry 9 for DEALERS ONLY.

FEBRUARY I 986 • B Y T E 37

WHAT'S NEW

Like other versions of
UNIX release 2. System V/AT
has features not found in
release I. These include a
faster shell, job control, flex-
names, interfunction and
multiprocess profiling, user
lint libraries, ctrace,
terminfo. and curses (ctrace
is a utility for tracing a pro-
gram line by line, terminfo
is a database of escape se-
quences, and curses is a
subroutine for manipulating
terminal screens). System
V/AT adds File System
Hardening, which reduces
the chances of data loss
during an inadvertent shut-
down, record-level locking,
full use of the iAPX286 pro-
tection and task-switching
mechanisms, a complete im-
plementation of the sym-
bolic debugger, small- and
large-model compilers for C
and FORTRAN 77. and
80287 emulation. It is also
binary-compatible with UNIX
for the AT&T 6300 Plus.

You can purchase System
V/AT in three different
packages. The Runtime Sys-
tem, with over 40 utilities,
costs $139.95. The Software
Development System, with C
and FORTRAN 77 compilers,
make. sees. sdb. and other
tools for large-scale 286
development, costs $99.95.
The Text Preparation System,
with nroff. troff. spell, and
support for output devices
ranging from terminals to
typesetting equipment, costs
$139.95. All three packages
can be purchased for
$389.95.

Contact Microport Systems
Inc.. 10096 Soquel Dr..
Aptos. CA 95003, (408)
688-0286.
Inquiry 551.

The 80286-based Apricot XEN.

Apricot Introduces
80286 Computer

The Apricot XEN (pro-
nounced "zen") is
based on an Intel 80286
running at 7.5 MHz with
zero wait states. The system
comes equipped with I
megabyte of RAM, one
720K-byte double-sided
3 '/2-inch microfloppy-disk
drive, and an internal
20-megabyte 3/2-inch Win-
chester drive. One parallel
Centronics port and one
RS-232C serial port are
standard.

Of the Apricot's six expan-
sion slots, one is used for a
monitor card, one is re-
served for future use. and
the remaining four can be
filled with 1-megabyte RAM
expansion boards. T\vo con-
nectors are provided for ex-
pansion, one for Apricot-
compatible cards and the
other for IBM-compatible
cards.

The keyboard layout is
similar to that of the IBM
PC AT but includes dedi-
cated cursor keys and a
backlit 80-character LCD
display that you can use to
label six additional program-
mable function keys. A track-
ball mouse is available as an
option.

Software bundled with the
system includes MS-DOS 3.1.
Microsoft Windows, GW-
BASIC. and IBM BIOS
emulation software. With the
addition of an optional
5 14-inch floppy-disk drive,
the XEN can run IBM soft-
ware off the shelf, including
copy-protected programs like
Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft's
Flight Simulator.

System price, not including
a monitor, is $3995. For fur-
ther information, contact
Apricot Inc.. 47173 Benicia
St.. Fremont. CA 94 538.
(415) 659-8500.
Inquiry 552.

Laser Printer for
Under $2000

QMS's KISS laser printer
produces letter-quality
text and graphics with a
300- by 300-dot-per-inch
resolution. It has nine resi-
dent fonts, two for land-
scape orientation (including
an 18-character-per-inch
spreadsheet font) and seven
for portrait orientation,
allowing up to 40 print com-
binations. You can mix type-
faces and character orienta-
tions.

The printer's controller is
built around a Motorola
68000 microprocessor. It
has an 8K-byte variable in-
put buffer that will store up
to four pages of text and
80K bytes of RAM dedi-
cated to holding down-
loaded fonts. This lets you
download fonts such as the
IBM 2 56-character font set.
a mosaic character set. or
up to eight typefaces.
Another 128K bytes of RAM
is set aside for the page
memory, where page layout
and design commands are
stored.

The nine resident fonts
and the system firmware are
in a 2 56K-byte ROM. This
ROM also has Epson FX-80
text and graphics emulation.
Diablo 630 emulation, and
Qume Sprint emulation.
When the KISS printer is in
Epson mode, two extra char-
acter sets, roman and italic
roman. and an additional
font are available.

The QMS KISS prints up
to six pages per minute on
16- to 21-pound paper and
transparencies or manually
loaded duplex copies in 16-
to 33-pound stock. It costs
$1995 with a Centronics
parallel interface; an op-
tional RS-2 32C interface
costs an additional $2 50.
Contact QMS Inc.. POB
81250. Mobile. AL 36689.
(205) 633-4300.
Inquiry 553.

AST Boards
for Apple II

Two single-slot, plug-in
boards from AST—
MegaRamPlus and Sprint-
Disk— improve the Apple
lie's memory. MegaRamPlus
lets you add up to I mega-
byte of RAM to an Apple
lie. Because MegaRamPlus is
fully socketed, it
is simple to add 64K- or
2 56K-byte RAM chips to the
board. MegaRamPlus works
[continued)

38 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

NEW FROM BORLAND

Borland Introduces Reflex,

The Greatest Analytical Tool

Since The Couch

INTRODUCING REFLEX, THE ANALYST.

If you use Lotus 1-2-3™, dBASE® or PFS
File™, you need Reflex™— because it's a
totally new way to look at your data. It
shows you patterns, relationships and
interrelationships you didn't know were
there, because they were hidden in data
and numbers.

Reflex is the first database that separates
the trees from the forest. The first database
that understands that what you see
depends on how you look at it.

The first database that probes
relationships — then shows them to you in
various graphic forms— scatter, line, bar,
stacked bar and pie charts.

The first database to break the bonds of
traditional DBMS (Data Base Management
Systems) and give a dramatic visual turn to
data analysis.

Reflex makes graphic leaps far beyond 1-2- 3.
With Reflex, when you look, you see.

HOW THE CRITICS REACT TO REFLEX

"The next generation of software has officially arrived."

Peter Norton, PC Week
"Reflex is one of the most powerful database programs on
the market; its multiple views; interactive windows and
graphics, great report writer, pull-down menus and cross
tabulation make this one of the best programs we have seen
in a long time.. The program is easy to use and not
intimidating to the novice...Reflex not only handles the
usual database functions such as sorting and searching, but
also "what-if and statistical analysis... it can create
interactive graphics with the graphics module. The separate
report module is one of the best we've ever seen."

Marc Stern, InfoWorld
"What you see, then, is an interesting hybrid of a database
and a spreadsheet that is ideal for analyzing tabular data."
Adam B. Green, InfoWorld

"More flexible than spreadsheets, this easy-to-use database
analysis package presents information with visual
clarity... Reflex is for you. The flexibility of switching
between different views of the data lets you see
relationships you may have previously overlooked... Without
"what-if' analysis, key variables— such as cost of goods
sold or travel expenses— may be out of hand but unnoticed.
The type of analysis to uncover such a foible is awkward to
do on a spreadsheet; yet, it may mean the difference
between success and failure in a competitive situation."
Ira H. Krakow, Business Computer Systems

♦

INTERNATIONAL

4585 Scotis Valley Drive. Scotts valley CA 95066
Phone (408) 438-8400 Telex 172373

Trademarks: Reflex is a trademark of BORLAND/ AnaJyUca Inc. Lows is a registered
trademark and Lows 1-2-3 is a trademark of Lotus Development Coiporation. dBASE
Is a registered trademark of AshtonTate. PFS is a registered trademark and PFS File
is a trademark of Software Publishing Corporation. IBM PC, XT, AT, PC-DOS and
IBM Color Graphics Adapter are rvfljsiered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation, liercules Monochrome Graphics Card Is a trad mark of
Hercules Computer Technology.

Inquiry 42 for End-Users
Inquiry 43 for DEALERS ONLY.

REFLEX OPENS MULTIPLE WINDOWS
WITH NEW VIEWS AND GRAPHIC
INSIGHTS.

You use Reflex's Form View to build your
database; the list View lets you put data in
tabular list form; the Graph View gives you
instant interactive graphic representations;
the CrossTab View gives you amazing
"cross-referenced" pictures of the links and
relationships hidden in your data. Report
View allows you to import and export data
to and from Reflex, 1-2-3, dBASE, PFS File
and other applications and prints out
information in the formats you want. In
fact, Report View is probably the best 1-2-3
report generator you can buy today. It's
also the cheapest— and you're getting all
the other features free.

The commands for all five Views are
consistent — so you're not stuck learning
five different ways to get something done.
And because Reflex uses advanced
windowing techniques, you can see several
views on the screen at the same time —
without having to switch back and forth.
You get the picture— and the pictures— all
at once— if that's the way you want to look
at things.

Modify a number and all your Views— List,
Form and Graph — are immediately
updated, on-screen. Changing a number
changes the picture— which is mighty
handy when you're analyzing (let's say)
sales figures by salesperson; or you're in
"What-if?" country asking yourself "What if
we could add 2.5% in January sales?'
"Show me."

"Give me the picture." "Show me what
happens when we shift 1196 of Nebraska's
inventory to the new store in Hawaii."
"Show me how many Gizmo 28's we have
in every store in every state as of midnight
last night and what happens to our East
Coast stocks if the shipping strike lasts
more than a week." "Show me."

So Reflex shows you. Instant answers.
Instant pictures. Instant analysis. Instant
understanding.

HOW IN THE WORLD CAN BORLAND SELL
A PHENOMENAL PRODUCT LIKE REFLEX
FOR ONLY $99.95?

At $495.00, Analytical original price, Reflex
was a bargain. Acclaimed by critics and
praised by users, Reflex also got our
attention at Borland International. We were
so impressed by Reflex that we bought the
company!

To celebrate that, we're making business
software history by offering Reflex— FOR A
LIMITED TIME— for ONLY $99.95! (Offer
good through March 31, 1986).
That's $395.05 off the original price—
which is a pretty good return on your toll-
free phone call.

We think Reflex should be an "automatic
product," a "standard" that every PC owner
should own. That's why we priced it at
$99-95. Naturally we've added our 60-day
money-back guarantee and Borland's
Reflex is not copy-protected.

Ti

i

i

i

i

i

i

255-800ACA(800)

Available at better

s-aaSsffl** 1 -''"

Ser 3 neares»yo-|

ycjsi Rush
Reflex to m e -
S e nd me —

. copies.

60-DAY

'BM® P£i?'aMK HAM

,mpa, £ )RM Color G^'tnme
Adapte^^orequ^'er.r

^gSESf

*$99

95

M Tefe phon<

Subto'al

t(CA res.
Amou I
Pa/mei
Credit
Card)

a , ce p.ed by Borland C

add$6taxpercopy^

c Ban*D'_

Ho nis add 6% sa'es tax

CODs/^Sf^^dWa^en.

»^££eL"!22m

1
I
1

I

i add $10 a

copy ri 9 M

198 5 Borland W>m*

ial -,onalBMG20 A

WHAT'S NEW

with 80-column displays and
also offers an optional RGB
interface.

The MegaRamCache utility
transparently builds buffers
as large as the memory in-
stalled in the MegaRamPlus
card. The buffers increase
program operation speed by
reducing the need for the
Apple He to bring in blocks
of code from its disk drives.

MegaRamCache captures
blocks of code that would
otherwise be dropped from
64K-byte. or extended 128K-
byte. CPU-accessible mem-
ory and stores them in the
MegaRamPlus card's mem-
ory. All subsequent disk-
drive read requests from the
CPU are compared first to
the MegaRamPlus memory
contents. If the needed
block of code is there it is
transferred into CPU-acces-
sible memory at RAM
speed. Other software
doesn't have to be modified
to work with MegaRam-
Cache and MegaRamPlus.
Both MegaRam products are
compatible with AppleWorks
and ProDOS.

Other utilities include
AppleWorks Expansion,
which lets AppleWorks ad-
dress a full I megabyte of
expanded memory; RAM-
disk software for disk emula-
tion: and RAM diagnostics.

MegaRamPlus costs $195
with 64K bytes. $295 with
2 56K bytes, and $74 5 with 1
megabyte of installed
memory.

SprintDisk occupies a
single slot, supports up to 1
megabyte of RAM. and will
soon offer a piggyback
board option to allow ex-
pansion to 2 megabytes.
The board is fully socketed
to make the upgrade to 2
megabytes a simple task.
SprintDisk is compatible
with ProDOS. DOS 3.3.
Pascal 1.3. and Apple's new
Apple II Memory Expansion
Card.

The Toshiba T-l 100 laptop microcomputer.

SprintCache is the soft-
ware distributed with Sprint-
Disk that provides disk
caching to speed program
operation.

The base model of Sprint-
Disk contains 2 56K bytes of
RAM and sells for $295.
Other RAM configurations
are available. The 1-mega-
byte version sells for $74 5.

Contact AST Research Inc..
2121 Alton Ave., Irvine. CA
92714. (714) 476-3866.
Inquiry 554.

Portable
IBM-Compatible
from Toshiba

The Toshiba T-l 100 is a
laptop IBM PC-com-
patible microcomputer. It of-
fers MS-DOS. 512K bytes of
RAM, and an internal 720K-
byte 3 '/2-inch floppy-disk
drive, yet weighs only 9
pounds. The flat screen pro-
duces a 640- by 200-pixel
display organized as 80
characters by 2 5 lines. It can
be adjusted for any conve-
nient viewing angle within a
90-degree band.

For I/O. the T-l 100 features
a parallel printer port, an
RGB graphics monitor inter-
face, and a floppy-disk-drive
port. The internal disk drive
is compatible with the
3 '/2-inch disk drive used on
the Data General/One MS-

DOS portable computer. The
83-character keyboard in-
cludes alphanumeric keys,
function keys, and a non-
standard numeric keypad.

The system's power con-
sumption is reduced by the
use of CMOS chips and gate
arrays. The built-in recharge-
able nicad battery will
power the computer for four
to eight hours. The 12.2- by
12- by 2.6-inch T-l 100 also
comes with an AC adapter
and a carrying case.

External floppy-disk drives
(both 3 /2-inch and 5/4-inch),
a printer, and a multifunc-
tion card with asynchronous
communications port.
300-bps modem, and calen-
dar/clock are available as
options.

The T-l 100 is priced at
$1999. Contact Toshiba
America Inc.. Information
Systems Division. 2441
Michelle Dr., Ilistin. CA
92680. (714) 730-5000.
Inquiry 555.

Telecommunications
Pop-up Programs

Cygnet Technologies has
developed a memory-
resident package that auto-
matically accesses electronic
mail services and checks for
messages without interrupt-
ing the program you're
using. Get!, which runs on
IBM PCs and compatibles,
works with host-type ser-
vices such as MC! Mail.
Easylink. CompuServe Mail.
Source Mail, TeleMail. ITT
DialComm. and OnTVme.

You can have the software
dial the service and check
for mail at any time you
select. If mail is found, the
program flashes a "mail
waiting" message in the
upper-right corner of your
screen. You can then pop
out of your application and
download your mail or leave
it in your electronic mailbox.

Get! sells for $49.95 and is
not copy-protected. Contact
Cygnet Technologies Inc.
1296 Lawrence Station Rd.,
Sunnyvale. CA 94089. (800)
621-4292: in California. (800)
331-9113.
Inquiry 556.

Lattice's SideTalk connects
you with your
modem from inside any ap-
plication with one keystroke.
It provides for multitasking
operation, file transfer, text
transfer from background to
foreground, and DOS com-
mands in background.

Sidelalk comes with the
SideTalk Communications
Language. BASIC-like com-
mands that let you make
your own communications
processing systems.

The program works with
MS-DOS machines and takes
up about 64K bytes of
memory. SideTalk costs
$119.95. Contact Lattice Inc.,
POB 3072. Glen Ellyn, IL
60138. (312) 858-7950.
Inquiry 557.

40 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

NEW FROM BORLAND!

Borland introduces Tuibo Lightning™

the fastest, most amazing
information system since your brain

You can now find out everything in a flash.

With instant access to electronic versions of the 83,000 word
Tbrbo Lightning™ Random House® Speller & Word List; the
50,000-word Tbrbo Lightning Random House Thesaurus™
and the soon-to-be-released Tbrbo Lightning Encyclopedia™
— and to an astonishing array of electronic reference books
which form Borland's new Tbrbo Lightning Library™.

Hitting one key on your IBM® personal computer — taps
you into this new electronic age of instant information.

You get the right word, the right spelling, the right name,
the right address, right now.

What we've done has been called "Artificial Intelligence,"
we simply call it "Tbrbo Lightning." This information
revolution — driven by Tbrbo Lightning — means that the
way you look things up is definitely looking up.

No matter what program you're running,
Turbo Lightning instantly checks your

Spelling as YOU type. You could be running
WordStar®, MultiMate™, SideKick®, Microsoft® Word, MCI
Mail®, CompuServe® or whatever, because as you work, as
you write, Tbrbo Lightning is waiting in the wings, watching
how you spell every word, but not getting in the way of what
you're doing.

So how does it work? Let's say the word you meant to
type was "RIGHT" but you accidentally typed 'RiHGT,"
which is wrong. What happens then?

You immediately hear a 'beep,' so you know there was a
boo-boo. You instantly see a window, that doesn't list
"WGr but it does list 'RIGHT 1 and its sound-alike words.
So your screen looks like this:

rihgt
Sound Alike Words :

B: rights
C; righted
D: r i g h 1 1 y

Turbo Lightning does a lot more than spell
"right" right, It also gives you instant

Synonyms. Because you also have Tbrbo Lightning's
Random House Thesaurus at your fingertips, you can really
get to know your 'rights.' So back to the word "Right," but
this time in the thesaurus. Type in "Right" and what you see
in the on-screen window is:

So you instantly know more than one way to say, "The
Boss is always right," which is handy if you get cornered
and have to lie like that

Introduce yourself to ft/rAo Lightning and it
will never ever forget your name its conceivable,

if unfair, that your name, is not in the dictionary already, but
you. can instantly teach Wrho Lightning your name and all
the other: names and words it needs to know;to help run'
your business or personal life.

Once you've taught Tbrbo Lightning what it needs to
know, you'll never blow it with a letter to die joint Cheeh of
Staff, t\iz Raygan White Bowse or mess something up on your

1MB PC. (1MB PC is not a trademark of Internationa!
Business Machine Corp!)

Not $500, not $400, not $300, not $200, not
$100, just $99.95 for this instant electronic

miracle. Our success is pretty simple. We're not greedy. We
believe that it is better to sell hundreds cf thousands of
software programs at a reasonable price— instead of a few at
prices that would make Jesse James blush.

Just $99-95 gets you into the Tbrbo Lightning Library —
which is an incredible deal when you look at what you're
getting. You're getting the 'access system'— Tbrbo
Lightning— which is the "engine" that powers the whole
Tiirbo Lightning Library. You're getting the "engine" plus the
83,000-word Tbrbo Lightning Random House Speller and
Word List; the 50,000-word Tbrbo Lightning Random House
Thesaurus. And you're getting all that for an incredible
$99.95!

If you ever write a word, think a word or say
a word, you need Turbo Lightning, we give you a

60-day money-back guarantee and of course there's no copy
protection. $99-95 isn't much to pay for a mistake-free life,
Not to mention an education. No matter who you are or
what you do; you need Tbrbo Lightning. That $99-95 will be
the best $99-95 you ever spent on yourself or your company.

Do yourself, your assistants, your secretary, your boss, your
readers, your audience and your career a favor, get Tbrbo
Lightning today!

F: Tighter

G. Add word to auxiliary dictionary
Pni in nr Pnn n for more words

So you move your cursor to ' V which is the right
"right," hit Return and the spelling mistake, is instantly
feed. And the program you were working on has continued
to nin while you did a little spelling sidetrip with Tbrbo

Lightning, (if you'd rather ml remember >.,;. i /. * m -..hvl the

l*rp mii'hi nuke you nuts, luit you can choose the "whole page" option. Which
nit .'lis f/i.tt rt ii -' i - i mi' I) u nw\; ti\ , <s Mill k'

highlighted You go In and straighten things •.-.• *

Lightning never goes away, is 100% concurrent, reliable,
accurate and cannot, does not, will not 'crash & bum.'

Your document, letter, report, spreadsheet is word perfect
no one ever knows that you Gun spell for keens.

4555 SCOTIS VALLEY DRIVE, SCOTTS VALLEY.

CA 95066 PHONE (-W. TELEX 172373

ighmirift.Tiii^.1 lighuwii', Lr^.V.ix-di.i. :i!:-.I'run^J ijiiisuiji:,^ ;,;bnry arc
jjks ar.<i SkloK v .* .1 .<•"' .' iitttii iwri i'i bi I n ioiuI in
J7-: ]1;iiinc ;sz fijia---. n.'iht:i.:-.Trj.i:V. i -i ivn-.- v -m iiiiuv. Jiff. II.!M. IRM (v,AT.
XT arc n.- t yHvn.'i.rn.i'!':iVi:irk- tifK'crJuii'.fvJ H-ssiric^ y.;-j h'-i)f C->m V.uhMxw
<:<—jt- ' Vi.,'? :i>\. int pi. i u ! t, , i . ... ' ' u ■. n..Liki>i

i r 'li> m,. !> i ' >'< t i li > ( t if- V , t, ( i)

Mils i'.,ikv ' i' iir i - iuji i- . ; ^ ! ' i.tniiMi . . p i v i i 'up lv i i t
twJ tiatieniiirk of ComiHCierte G,)ffi

uiry 44 for End-Users Inquiry 45 for DEALERS ONLY

WHAT'S NEW

Color Dot-Matrix
Printer from TI

The Texas Instruments
Model 8 57 is a color
dot-matrix printer that can
produce letter-quality text
and graphics. It uses a four-
color snap-in ribbon to yield
seven printed colors: cyan,
magenta, black, yellow, red,
blue, and green.

Tl's font modules (ROM
cartridges) function as elec-
tronic daisy wheels during
letter-quality printing. Each
module has one font style in
both draft and letter-quality
character sets. The modules
are interchangeable, with
over 30 font styles and
special character sets avail-
able. Up to three font
modules can be inserted at
one time, with font selection
made from the keyboard or
through software.

The Model 857 will print
true descenders and under-
lines as well as software-
selected boldface, shadow
printing, superscripts, and
subscripts. It comes with a
Gothic font module, a full
ASCII 96-character set. and
a 64 mosaic graphic charac-
ter set. It also has raster
graphics. In draft mode, the
Model 857 prints 150 char-
acters per second in a 9- by
9-dot matrix. In letter-quality
mode, it prints 3 5 characters
per second in a 15- by
18-dot matrix double pass.
Graphics can be produced
with horizontal dot densities
of 60. 72. 120. and 144 dots
per inch and a vertical dot
density of 144 dots per
inch.

The Model 857 uses stan-
dard word- and data-pro-
cessing escape sequences
and has both serial and
parallel interfaces. With
friction- and tractor-feed
mechanisms that will accom-
modate 3- to 11-inch-wide
paper and a screen-dump
utility disk, it costs $899.
Contact Texas Instruments
Inc., Data Systems Group,

The Texas Instruments Model 857 printer.

POB 809063. H-819, Dallas,
TX 75380. (800) 527-3 500.
Inquiry 558.

Leave Spoken Notes
in Symphony Files

Lyrics, from Computer-
voice Corporation, is an
add-in product for the IBM
PC and compatible com-
puters that lets you annotate
Symphony documents with
spoken messages. Lyrics
records messages onto com-
puter disks and later plays
them back using a standard
telephone. Messages are
noted on your worksheet by
a numbered marker, just as
a written footnote is.

Lyrics requires 32K bytes
of memory in addition to
the memory requirements of
Symphony. It uses one of
your DMA channels and one
slot in your IBM PC. Mes-
sages use 180K bytes of
disk space for each minute
of recorded speech.

The Lyrics software and
add-in card cost $139. Con-
tact Compu'tervoice Corp..
POB 3 52. Newton Highlands,
MA 02161. (617) 244-4233.
Inquiry 559.

Socketed Prototyping
Board

Ajida Technologies' Per-
sonal Protosystem is a
complete interface system
for the IBM PC. You can
design and build a circuit on
the Protosystem, connect it
to the signal lines provided
on the console, and test it
using your PC. The Protosys-
tem software lets you
change the input signal
levels and monitor the
resulting outputs so you can
test your design, find the
optimal input levels for your
goals, and change the hard-
ware settings using the soft-
ware.

The 7- by 8- by 3-inch con-
sole provides 32 bits of buf-
fered digital I/O. two chan-
nels of 8-bit A/D. two chan-
nels of 8-bit D/A, three pro-
grammable 5-MHz counter/
timers, a 4-MHz clock, 5-volt
and 12 -volt power supplies,
and breadboard space for
24 14-pin DIPs. It connects
to your IBM PC via the
parallel port.

The Personal Protosystem
comes with setup software
and a BASIC driver for
$42 5; FORTH and C drivers
are also available. Contact

Ajida Technologies Inc.. POB
40178, Berkeley. CA 94704,
(415) 548-6434.
Inquiry 560.

Keyboard Shorthand

PRD + (for Productivity
Plus) is memory-
resident software that lets
you design your own short-
hand for use in a word-
processing, database-man-
agement, spreadsheet, or
graphics program. You can
use fewer keystrokes by sub-
stituting abbreviations for
words, phrases, program-
ming commands, and for-
mulas. Each abbreviation
can replace as many as 240
characters. You define the
abbreviations, which are
stored with their long forms
in an on-line dictionary.

Suppose you often write
the phrase "Have a nice
day.'" While using your word
processor, you could ab-
breviate this as "hnd." When
you activate PRD+ by press-
ing the space bar. carriage
return, or punctuation sym-
bol, it replaces each ab- ■
breviation with the long
form.

You can define as many
abbreviations as your com-
puter's memory will allow.
Each word list can contain
40,000 characters. PRD +
contains a list of abbrevia-
tions for common items-
month, street, state, etc.—
and a list of commonly mis-
spelled words. Another fea-
ture calculates the number
of keystrokes saved during a
writing or data-entry
session.

PRD+ runs on the IBM PC
and compatibles. It uses
64K bytes of memory. Sug-
gested retail price is $195.
Contact Productivity Soft-
ware International. 1220
Broadway, New York. NY
10001. (212) 967-8666.
Inquiry 561.

{continued on page 395)

42 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

New for SideKick Users!
Includes Free Pen and Solar Calculator

Borland introduces Traveling SideKick,"
it's your SideKick's sidekick!

Traveling SideKick

is the organizer for the Computer Age!

Traveling SideKick is both a binder you take with you
when you travel — and a software program — which
includes a Report Generator — that generates and
prints ot v/all the information you'll need to take with
you. Information like your phone list, your client list,
your address book, your calendar, and your
appointments. (The Appointment Schedule or Calendar
you're already using in your SideKick is automatically
used by your Traveling SideKick. You don't waste time
and effort re-entering information that's already there.)

One keystroke generates and prints out a form like
your Address Book. (You don't need to change printer
paper.) You simply use a standard 3-hole punch —
which you can steal from someone else's desk — punch
out the holes, fold and clip the form into your Traveling
SideKick binder — and you're on your way. Because
Traveling SideKick's binder and software are CAD
(Computer Age Designed), you don't fool around with
low-tech tools like scissors, tape, or

staples. Just one keystroke, 3 holes
and you're on your
way.

^r

What's inside the Organizer Binder

ADDRESS BOOK SECTION

PRE-PRINTED FORMAT WITH DIVIDERS AND
TABS FOR EASY REFERENCE

PHONE DIRECTORY SECTION

PRE-PRINTED PHONE DIRECTORY
COMPUTER OR MANUALLY UPDATED

MISCELLANEOUS SECTION

TO STORE ALL EXTRA PRE-PRINTED FORMS
AND COMMONLY USED RECORDS

REFERENCE SECTION

CONTAINS MAPS, TIME ZONES.
800 TRAVEL NUMBERS. TRAVEL
ACCOMMODATIONS. ETC

FINANCE SECTION

EXPENSE REPORTS, RECEIPT LOG AND
STORAGE ENVELOPE. CREDIT CARD
INFORMATION. ETC

CALENDAR SECTION

YEARLY. MONTHLY. WEEKLY, AND DAILY
CALENDAR WITH APPOINTMENT

SCHEDULER

PENDING SECTION

A "RIGHT NOW" SECTION FOR CURRENT
PROJECTS, MEETING NOTES. ETC

STORAGE POCKETS

FOR BUSINESS CARDS, CALCULATOR OR
RECEIPT STORAGE, ETC

TRAVELING SIDEKICK SOFTWARE

A REPORT GENERATOR TO CONVERT, PRINT
AND UPDATE ALL INFORMATION

You don't have a SideKick? You must
be kidding:

More than half a million people already use Borland's desk
top organizer, SideKick (Winner of lnfoWorld's "Product of
the Year" award, it is also the *1 best-seller for the IBM
PC™). Anyway, if you don't have one already you need one
now and we'll give you a special price break. Buy Traveling
SideKick and SideKick for only $125.00 (Sold separately they
add up to $154.90, so you save $29.90— which we hope you
don't have to spend on cabs which take you the long way to
the airport).

What the software program and its
Report Generator do for you before
you go — and when you get back.

Before you go:

• Prints out your Calendar, Appointments,
Addresses, Phone Directory, and whatever other
information you need from your data files.

// can also:

• Sort your address files by name, zip code, or
company name

• Print mailing labels

• Print information selectively

• Search files for existing addresses or calendar
engagements

When you return:

• Lets you quickly and easily enter all the new names
and numbers, facts and figures you learned while
you were away — into your SideKick data files.

• Traveling SideKick does all of the above and more
without needing special computer paper.

// you use SideKick, you need
Traveling SideKick.

Since you use SideKick, you already know how incredible
and invaluable it is. And you now know that Traveling
SideKick uses all the information you already have in
your SideKick, No retyping. No re-entry. It's that easy.

Sold separately, Traveling SideKick is only $69.95
which is a lot less than many 'dumb' organizers that are
nothing more than printed books that can't generate
anything except dust. (Because Traveling SideKick is
electronic, it works this year, next year, and all the
"next yean" after that. Old-fashioned low-tech
organizers are history in 365 days.) You'll be proud of
your Traveling SideKick binder on planes and boats and
trains. It's stylish, professional, and practical. It belongs
— with you — in the Computer Age — and for only
$69.95, it belongs to you.

BORLAND

INTER NAT 10 N A t

4585 SCOTTS VALLEY DRIVE, SC0T7S VALLEY, CA 95066
PHONE {408} 438-8400 TELEX 172373

SideKick is a registered trademark and Traveling SideKick- is a .trademark ot
Borland International, Inc. WordStar is a registered : trademark 0; MicroPro
International Corp. Lotus is a. registered trad'-' <ark • . tus Ot;--. lopmont
Corp. cJBASE is a registered trader"!- <-h > - ■ ; r, ■ 1 at", ,»nd

PC|r are registered trademarks ot tnl \ , Corp

Inquiry 46 for End-Users. Inquiry 47 for DEALERS ONLY.

(i
1

I

I

I

I

1

;;,:• Telephone:

-'vM COD'S

-■■"■ Outs

SlBBKUft

^"!ris^»- c '' 8001

dea/er
742 1 133

nearest you. To oraeruy

Min/mumSysremBe^reinenrs:

128K

Jtern both for on/yS 125.°.
o^wmp copies

60 DAY

MONEY-BACK

mpUlWAHTEEj

yes, tneed the periect

traveling companion.

_, „ a copies

Se nd me— — »*

$69- 95

3 a 'dd U S S 10 p" Product ordered

^a^^-percopyj
Amount Enclosed. -—-^ raft

Payment Vsa MC
C rU Card Exp Date.

Card «

^-ssSssssssz&SS;-

v£5£SiZr»H'X2Z

Sb'j3yr\gW

9&5 -Bafiand intefnatipt ^

ASK BYTE

Conducted by Steve Garcia

Commodore 64 Tape Buffer

Dear Steve.

How would I bypass the buffer on a
Commodore 64 so that I can have a
30-minute graphics program play direct-
ly from the tape in real time? Also, can you
think of any problems I might have record-
ing it?

Randy Maule
Santa Monica. CA

It is not necessary to bypass the tape
buffer in order to display graphics direct-
ly from tape. The amount of time re-
quired by the Kernal to maintain the tape
buffer is small compared to the time re-
quired to read a few bytes from a tape.
The speed at which the image on the
screen can be changed is, therefore,
limited to the speed that data is read
from a tape.

An image can be saved and later re-
stored on tape in two ways. One way is
an adaptation of a technique described
in the April 1984 issue of Compute!
magazine on page 152. The article
"Owikload/save for VIC and 64" by
Richard L. Witkover describes how to use
the Kernal routines SETLFS, SET NAM,
LOAD, and SAVE to load and save blocks
of memory. In your case, you could save
the 8K-byte block of bit-map memory
used in the bit-map graphics mode, but
in 30 minutes the screen could be re-
drawn only a few times.

There is a second way. If you are clever,
you could save only those parts of the
image that are changing. But this would
require saving not only the byte of
memory being changed but also its ad-
dress within the 8K-byte block of mem-
ory. Each byte saved would, therefore,
take three times as much time to restore
as in the first method. If only small parts
of the image are being changed, how-
ever, this method may prove to be fast
enough— Steve

Bus Conversion

Dear Steve.

What I need is an article describing the
common microcomputer buses (Apple II.
IBM PC Commodore 64. S-100. etc.) with
instructions for converting projects from
any one to any other. I understand that

there are big differences between the
6502-based Apple II and the 8080/
8088-based S-100 and IBM PC buses, but
A0-AI5 and D0-D7 should be common
enough, and I wouldguess that some sup-
port chips and a PAL or two could take
care of the rest. The only big limitation
would seem to be the small size of the
Apple cards. Apple owners may never be
able to fit an S-100 project onto one card,
but two cards connected by a ribbon
cable is always a possibility. The other
problem is software, but I don't see that
as anywhere near the obstacle that hard-
ware imposes, and future articles could
provide software documentation with con-
version in mind. Am I all wet. or is this
possible? I would appreciate the help.
Rick Downer
Seattle, WA

I have no immediate plans for projects
to provide conversion from IBM PC to
Apple. Commodore, or S-100 buses, or
the reverse, but it does seem like a useful
idea. I'll keep it in mind for the future.

Meanwhile, you can get instructions for
building a converter to interface IBM PC-
compatible boards to your S-100 bus
from the article "Build an S-100 to PC Bus
Converter' by John Monohan in the May/
June 1985 issue of Micro/Systems journal.

The S-100 and Other Micro Buses by
Elmer C. Poe and James C. Goodwin
(Howard W.Sams. 1981) also provides in-
formation on Apple, S-100, and a number
of other buses, but. unfortunately, not all
you need to interface between them.

Interfacing Apple cards to the Com-
modore 64 and some other 6502 ma-
chines should be fairly easy. However, in
the case of Apple to IBM or S-100. it
would probably be easier and more
reliable to redesign the I/O section than
to try to make an adapter.— Steve

High-Quality Sound
Synthesis

Dear Steve.

I am a researcher in the field of auditory
function. In our laboratory, we use an
Apple II to control the contingencies of
a behavioral apparatus used to test the
hearing of different species of animals. We
use a collection of waveform-shaping

devices, attenuators, filters, amplifiers, and
function generators to produce our
auditory stimuli. These devices are con-
trolled manually. Our computer, via
mechanical relays, can only turn devices
on and off. It would be convenient to be
able to control all aspects of sound
generation with the computer.

I am looking for an IC. or better yet. a
complete board, that would provide high-
quality sound synthesis and be IBM-com-
patible (we are presently considering the
purchase of an IBM PC AT). I would like
the device to have the following charac-
teristics: variable intensity (attenuation)
over a 120-dB dynamic range in 1-dB
steps; generation of white noise and pure
tones over a wide frequency range (20 Hz
to 40 or 60 kHz); at least 2 independent
output channels, although I would prefer
8 to 16 channels; and all functions fully
programmable.

I have been told that the Texas Instru-
ments signal-processing IC (the TMS32010)
would be suitable for such an application.
However, I lack the software-development
environment and the engineering skills
necessary to support this IC. I know that
some devices like the one I have de-
scribed exist in the $10,000 price range,
but as well as being expensive, these
devices often have only a single channel.

Is there an IC or a complete board for
high-quality sound synthesis that can be
programmed simply by setting bits in cer-
tain registers, in much the same way as
some of the 8-bit sound-synthesis ICs that
you have described in past articles?

Peter W. Judge
Ottawa. Ontario. Canada

Apart from the 120-dB output range re-
quirement, nearly any music-synthesis
system could generate the signals you
need. Assuming you want a 120-dB
power range, the voltage range is
1.000.000 to I— from 100 volts to 100
microvolts, in practical units. Few devices
have that range and allow program-
mability in l~dB steps; none are inexpen-
sive, as you point out in your letter.

Hewlett-Packard recently introduced a
series of laboratory devices, called PC In-
struments, which feature complete pro-

[continued)

44 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

COPYRIGHT © 1986 STEVEN A. GARCIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Clipper gives dBASE III users more time to do more. Or less.

Clipper™ allows you
to run all dBASE III™
programs 2 to 20 times
faster than they do
with the standard
dBASE interpreter,

That frees up extra
time you're wasting if
you're running dBASE III
programs without
Clipper.

Extra time to think.
To create. To produce.
To use as you choose.

You see, Clipper is
the first true compiler
for dBASE III. Clipper
eliminates the time-
consuming translation
which the dBASE inter-
preter performs line
after line whenever a
program is run.

With Clipper, once
you've debugged your
source code, it's com-
piled into more effi-
cient machine code.

And Clipper com-
piles all your dBASE III
programs. The ones
you have today. The
ones you'll have
tomorrow. But don't ■
wait until tomorrow
to order Clipper.

Today, Clipper has
already been pur-
chased to speed up
dBASE run time at 3M
and Touche Ross. At
Exxon and NASA. In

the Harvard Physics
Department. For the
State of Arizona
and TRW.

And that's just a few
of the installations
worldwide. From
Greece to Venezuela
to Canada to Europe.

So stop wasting time.

Call our toll-free 800
number and get Clipper.

You'll spend less
time running dBASE III
and more time running
the rest of your life.

Inquiry 234 for End-Users. Inquiry 235 for DEALERS ONLY.

5995 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230 (800)251-8438 In California (213)390-7923

Inquiry 277

Try It.

Then Buy It.

PC-Write.

A fast, full-featured word
processing package for the
unbelievable price of $10.
Complete. You get a manual
on disk, mail merge, split
screen, keyboard macros,
on-screen formatting, full
printer support, and more.

IVy PC-Write for $10.
Then register for $75 to get:

• latest diskette

• printed manual

• two updates

• phone support

• newsletter
Registration supports our
"shareware" concept that
keeps our prices low, and
allows our development of
PC-Write enhancements.

Shareware means you can
get PC-Write from a friend
or user group to try, and
give away copies yourself.
Then register if you like it.
No risk!

Byte
February 86

We expect
our latest
version 2.6 soon, with
automatic reformatting,
proportional spacing,
optional menus, and our
new, completely rewritten
manual. Circle our bingo
number for more info.

Order PC-Write Today.

Satisfaction Guaranteed.

(206) 282-0452
219 First N. #224y
Seattle, WA 98109

ASK BYTE

grammability and relatively low cost. Up
to eight instruments can be controlled by
a single plug-in card for an IBM or HP PC
Prices range from $650 to $1500; the con-
troller and software cost $500. The attrac-
tion of this system is that you can set up
a complete stimulus-response experiment
using a building-block approach.

The 6101 4AA Function Generator has
only a 62-dB power range (10 V to 8 mV).
but you could build a 60-dB attenuator
using the 6101 1 A A Relay Multiplexer and
some precision resistors. For two chan-
nels, you would need two 6101 4AAs. You
might also want a Universal Counter/
Timer (6101 5 AA) that could be used to
measure response times and a Digital I/O
unit (6I0I0AA) to read switches and turn
on lights. The overall cost of the system
would be about $6000, plus a small
breadboard for the attenuator.

Although not as inexpensive as a single-
board synthesizer, these instruments are
designed for laboratory use and can be
reconfigured easily as your needs
change, in addition to being completely
programmable.— Steve

Datamaster

Dear Steve.

We have been running an IBM System/
2 3 computer (also known as the Data-
master) and would like to write some as-
sembly-language programs. Do you know
where we can get instruction manuals for
assembly-language programming on the
System/23?

Also, we would like to purchase a hard
disk for the Datamaster. IBM's hard disk
is 30 megabytes and is too expensive. Do
you know of any disk units that can attach
to this machine?

Irwin j. Matten
Chicago. IL

Everyone was surprised when IBM
adopted an open architecture for the PC:
The documentation for the hardware,
ROMs, operating-system interfaces, and
so forth is readily available. Unfortunate-
ly, the System/ 2 3 isn't an open system.
If IBM doesn't provide the information
you need, it simply isn't available. If your
local IBM branch office will provide you
with a list of the System/ 2 3 manuals, you
may be able to pick out the right one
from its title.

Adding an ' alien" hard disk to your sys-
tem faces similar obstacles; the disk sup-
plier must get the interface specifications
from IBM before designing the disk-
controller card. In the case of the Dis-
play Writer (another closed system), IBM

recently introduced an adapter cable
that connects a DisplayWriter to a PC,
letting the DisplayWriter operator send
and receive files from the PC's hard disk.

The DisplayWriter option is called the
DW/PC Attachment Convenience Kit and
sells for $495. It includes a 2 5- foot cable,
an 8-inch DW disk, and a 5!4-inch PC
disk. While I doubt that this particular
device will work as is on a System/23, it
is possible that IBM has a similar kit for
your system.

While not as fast or as convenient as
an integrated hard disk (program files
must be on the DisplayWriter's floppies),
the overall cost of the kit and a PC XT
is quite comparable to the official IBM
hard-disk system. If you already have a
PC with a fixed disk, it's unbeatable.
Check with your branch office to see if
such a kit is available for the System/23.
—Steve

Grading Help

Dear Steve.

I have been wondering if there is a card
reader available for the IBM PC that could
be used to read students' multiple-choice
test cards. I haven't seen an ad or article
about such a device in BYTE. I would be
grateful for any information you could
provide.

Fatih Gorman
Mersin, Turkey

The Sentry 3000 Optical Mark Reader
from National Computer Systems is de-
signed for education and human-
resources work. Its advertising claims
that it reads and analyzes marks on
specially designed forms. Apparently, it
is useful for grading tests and compiling
statistics. The price is $2 700. Contact Na-
tional Computer Systems, 4401 West
76th St., Edina, MN 55435.

If you want to do more work and spend
less money, you might consider adapting
a bar code reader to read the marked
test forms line by line. This would require
writing some software, however. Bar
code readers are available for $500 to
$1000. Some of them are the PCScanner
Model 240 from Caere Corporation. 100
Cooper Court. Los Gatos, CA 95030,
(408) 395-7000; the CYC- 48 bar code
reader from New Wave Systems, 12123
Washington PI., Los Angeles, CA 94303.
(213) 475-8545; and the BCR 232 bar
code reader from Comtec Information
Systems, Digitronics Div., 53 John St.,
Cumberland. Rl 02864. (401) 724-8500.

I suggest you query these companies

[continued]

46 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

NOW YOU CAN

BUY THE NEW ARTEK ADA

THE MOST ADVANCED

ADA COMPILER
FOR PERSONAL COMPUTERS!

Artek brings you the future in software technology.
Our fast and efficient Ada compiler enables you to dramatically increase programming productivity and cut costs.

Artek Ada is a professional production compiler,

comparable with the finest compilers available for

microcomputers today.

Artek Ada implements the Department of Defense

1983 Ada standard, including generics,

derived types, overloading, packages,

separate compilation, dynamic arrays, standard I/O,

standard string handling, array and record

aggregates and much more. The only major

Ada feature not implemented is tasking.

Minimum hardware requirements are: IBM PC or a

compatible computer, with MS-DOS or PC-DOS

(2.0 or later versions), 384 Kb RAM and one

double sided floppy-disk drive. Artek Ada works with

the IBM PC network. For further information see

our information kit.

Order the new Artek Ada Compiler for only 8 895.00,

including a debugger and a screen editor.

Also available is a demo diskette for 8 29.95

(including p&p anywhere in the world). Ask for our

free information brochure.

For orders or information call toll free

1-800-PC-ARTEK, in New Jersey or outside

the continental U.S.A. call 201-867-2900,

or write to our address.

VISA, MC and AMEX accepted.

In New Jersey add 6% sales tax.

Outside the U.S.A. add 8 20.00. Please pay with

credit card or a bank draft, payable in U.S. dollars

drawn on a U.S. bank.

Dealer and distributor inquiries welcome.

Art

^^■^^ Inquiry 385

Artek Corporation 100 Seaview Drive
Secaucus, NJ 07094

Artek is a trademark of Artek Corporation. Ada is a trademark of the U.S. Department of Defense, AJPO.
IBM and PC-DOS arc registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.

Inquiry 56

OUR PLUG-
GIVES YOU PLUG-IN
CONTROL.

PC00488 allows your IBM
PC/XT/AT or compatible
to control IEEE-488
instruments.

cec

Turbo Pascal is a trademark of Borland International

With PC00488, you can:

□ Plug-in to BASIC, C,
FORTRAN, or Turbo
Pascal! M

□ Emulate hp controllers,
D Use Tek Standard Codes

and Formats,
D Run IBM's IEEE-488 software, and much more.

Just $395 for the complete hardware and software interface.

Capital Equipment Corporation
10 Evergreen Avenue
Burlington, MA 01803
Call today (617) 273-1 81 8

ASK BYTE

about the feasibility of modification to
read your test sheets. Steve

Atari I/O Bus

Dear Steve.

Do you know where I can get informa-
tion on the Atari 800XLs parallel I/O bus?
It is accessible on the back of the XL
through a 50-pin edge connector. I can't
seem to find anything on it anywhere.
Alak Kumar Deb
Sunnyvale, CA

Antic magazine ran a four-part article
entitled 'Parallel Bus Revealed" by Earl
Rice; it contains pin-out information as
well as software and hardware examples.
Part I begins in the January 1985 issue.

Also, one source of circuit diagrams for
the more popular microcomputers, in-
cluding Atari, is Sams Computerfacts,
which is available from

Howard W. Sams & Company Inc.
4300 West 62nd St.
POB 7092
Indianapolis. IN 46206

The one for the Atari 800 XL (product
number 008951. set number CCII) sells
for $19.95.

Sams Computerfacts are technical
service manuals. There are no explana-
tions of the circuits, and the price may
be high, but if you already have some
knowledge of interfacing, they may be
sufficient.— Steve

German Characters

Dear Steve.

I have an IBM PC XT and want to use
Framework on it. However. I have much
writing to do in German, and this requires
special characters (such as umlauts). A
couple of months ago I read how to
emulate a German keyboard so that the
special characters I need appear on the
screen. (Unfortunately I didn't keep that
BYTE issue.) I have contacted Ashton-Iate
about my problem, but they had no
answer except that I should wait until a
German version becomes available.

I have a daisy-wheel printer, so I can
easily switch the print wheels. Any ideas
about how I can solve my problem?

Karl H. Mauritz
Cleveland. OH

It appears that the IBM PC has all the
characters you need in its extended char-
acter set. so all you need is a program
to make some key combinations (e.g.. Alt-
A. Alt-B) display German characters.

[continued]

48 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 284

"The C86
C Compiler
is Great . .

Computer
Innovations
Support is
Even GREATER

DALE HILLMAN,

PRESIDENT, XOR CORPORATION

CREATOR OF "NFL CHALLENGE"

When Dale Hillman
decided to create the most
exciting football simulation
game ever, he knew he
needed good language
support. The portability and
maintainability of C made it
a natural choice. Which
C compiler to choose was
another matter entirely.

"Of the many C compilers
available, choosing the best
one for the job was not easy.
Comparing benchmarks, most
compilers were strong in
one or two categories, yet
decidedly weak in others.

Computer Innovations' C86
was the exception. I found
the C86 Compiler con-
sistently strong in all
categories.

"C86 had a reputation for
being a solid, reliable, high-
performance compiler. 8087
nnath support, source level
debugging — it had it all.
BEST of all was Computer
Innovations' incredible
technical support. Their
highly knowledgeable
support team was always
available. Their assistance
helped cut development

time substantially. And since
NFL CHALLENGE took 12 1 / 2
man-years to create —
every little bit helped. It was
a service you just can't
place a dollar value on . . ."

If you're working on the
next great program, call
Computer Innovations. We'll
show you why you'll never
have to look any further
than C86.

For Further Details
Call Toil-Free:

800-922-0169

Behind innovative Prognm*
Computer Innovations

COMPUTER
INNOVATIONS, INC

980 Shrewsbury Avenue,

Tinton Falls, NJ 07724 USA (201) 542-5920

EUROPEAN DISTRIBUTOR

Boston Micro, Inc. TELEX: 6712477 BMI USA

©1986 Computer Innovations, Inc.

" NFL Challenge is a trademark of NFL Properties

Inquiry 84

FEBRUARY 1 986 • BYTE

The liters off
Software Engineering

At Wang Institute, you'll find a community of
professionals working toward a common goal:
leadership positions in software engineering
and project management.

Our MSE program gives you a practical foun-
dation in the technology, methodology and
management of software development. An
integrated core curriculum consists of Formal
Methods, Programming Methods, Software
Engineering Methods, Computing Systems
Architecture, Management Concepts and
Software Project management. A variety of
elective courses are offered each semester,
and two project courses precede the degree.

This outstanding curriculum is complemented
by a dedicated faculty, a sophisticated comput-
ing facility and a country setting outside of
Boston. It's an excellent educational environ-
ment for developing the skills to specify,
design and implement cost-effective software
systems.

Wang Institute

OF

Graduate Studies

Name

Business Address

Business Phone

Home Phone

Years of Software
Development
Experience:

BYT 2/86

Your current status:

□ Software Professional

□ student □ other

TYNG ROAD, TYNGSBORO, MA 01879 617- 649-9731

ASK BYTE

There have been some published pro-
grams for changing the PCs key defini-
tions, and they are usually good program-
ming examples useful in limited applica-
tions. You may find one of the commer-
cial keyboard-redefinition programs
more useful and easier to use, though.
They provide the keyboard-customization
features you need and have other worth-
while functions.

ProKey from RoseSoft, SuperKey from
Borland International, and Keyworks
from Alpha Software Corporation are
available from most computer stores as
well as several companies that advertise
in BYTE. One of these will allow you to
redefine keys or enable shifted-key com-
binations using Alt and Ctrl keys in con-
junction with letter keys.— Steve

Iron-Oxide Sensors

Dear Steve.

Can you tell me who makes iron-oxide
sensors for detecting propane and natural
gas?

David Smith
Mi I ford, I A

Panasonic makes two iron-oxide solid-
state sensors, one for detecting liquid
propane (LP) and one for detecting liquid
natural gas (LNG). The LP sensor is type
EGS-SI.30P02; the LNG sensor is type
EGS-N02C. These devices have a sen-
sitivity of 50 parts per million and can be
used as gas-leak detectors.

The address of Panasonic is

Panasonic

Matsushita Electric Corporation
x Industrial Division
1 Panasonic Way
Secaucus, NJ 07094
(201) 348-7275

-Steve

IN ASK BYTE, Steve Garcia answers questions on
any area of microcomputing. The most representative
questions received each month will be answered and
published. Do you have a nagging problem? Send
your inquiry to

Ask BYTE

do Steve Garcia

POB 582

Glastonbury, CT 06033
Due to the high volume of inquiries, personal replies
cannot be given. All letters and photographs become
the property of Steve Garcia and cannot be returned.
Be sure to include 'Ask BYTE" in the address.

The Ask BYTE staff includes manager Harv
Weiner and researchers lurry Bregoli. Bill Curlew,
jeannette Dojan. )on Elson. Roger )ames. Frank
Kuechmann. Edward Nisley. Dick Sawyer. Andy
Siska. and Robert Stek.

50 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 351

MICROSOFT LANGUAGES NEWSLETTER

Vol. 1-2

News about the Microsoft Language Family

New Microsoft® LISP Offers a Complete LISP Programming Environment

Microsoft has extended its six-year relationship with Soft Warehouse, Inc. of Hawaii by renewing
the licensing agreements for muLISP™ and muMATH™ products. Microsoft LISI? the newly updated
release of Microsoft muLISIJis the most powerful LISP development environment available for
MS-DOS® today. Not only is Microsoft LISP three times faster than its competitors, it also allows
larger artificial intelligence programs and expert systems to be developed. The new LISP provides
over 400 Common LISP functions, macros, special forms, and control variables. Microsoft LISP
comes with an integrated window-oriented LISP editor and debugger, tutorial lessons, and several
demonstration LISP programs.

Mixed Memory Model Dynamic Allocation in Microsoft C— Part 1

The standard method of dynamic heap allocation in C is provided by the malloc and free
library routines. In Microsoft C this has been extended to allow mixed memory model dynamic
allocation and deallocation in both near and far heaps for all memory models oy using the
undocumented routines below:

extern char near* _nmalloc(iinsigned int);
extern void _nfree(char near*);
extern char far* _fmalloc(unsigned int);
extern void Jfree(char far*);

Aiear heap*/
/*near heap*/
/*far heap V
/*f ar heap V

For example, a small memory model C program can be written that can dynamically allocate
and access more than 64K of data by using far heap allocation and far pointers. Similarly, the
efficiency of large model programs can be improved by using near pointers and the near heap.
However, with mixed model programming, care must be taken when accessing library routines
that take pointers for parameters.

Part II to follow next month.

Microrim's RtBASE™ 5000 Developed in Microsoft FORTRAN and C

The core R:BASE 5000 database management system product contains about 40,000 lines of
Microsoft FORTRAN code/New modules for RiBASE were developed in Microsoft C. Fred Gray,
Microrims Director of Development said, "Interlanguage calling allows us to migrate our code from
FORTRAN to C without having to rewrite the entire product at once!'

Microrim also provides the R:BASE Program Interface, which is a library of relocatable
FORTRAN routines for accessing R:BASE databases. The interlanguage calling support in
Microsoft FORTRAN, Pascal, and C allows application developers to call any routine in the
Program Interface.

Write to: MICROSOFT Languages Newsletter
10700 Northup Way Box 97200

Bellevue, WA 98009 for product and update information
Or phone:

(800) 426-9400. In Washington State and Alaska,
call (206) 828-8088. In Canada, call (800) 387-6616.

Microsoft and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. muLISP and muMATH arc trademarks of
Soft Warehouse, Inc. R:BASE is a trademark of Microrim. Inc.

Latest DOS Versions:

Microsoft C

3.00

Microsoft COBOL

2.10

Microsoft FORTRAN

3.31

Microsoft Macro Assembler

4.00

Microsoft Pascal

3.31

Microsoft QuickBASIC

i _ ...

1.00

\'l

\

V I

PH

<

/

h:

Hi

IONEYWELLVIP

emulation using standard

IBM hardware. Synchronous

and asynchronous.

CALL USING possible.

File transfer as

standard FTF and ASCII.

Compatible with TopView
and IBM PC Network

rirB

Rivergate Plaza

444 Brickell Avenue

Miami, FL 33101

305/372-9332

Connections IBM PC-Honeywell DPS4 DPS6 DPS7 DPS8

Inquiry 325

.1

w

jf/ons

IX

W^L eep your file transfers

§ % on the track.

Using standard IBM hardware.

PC3780 lets you transfer files

between any sites using

2740/3740/3741/2780/3780.

100% error free.

Connect!
2780/3780
RJE IBM PC
HOST

Possible Connections

o PC to PC

o PC to any other computer using

one of these protocols:

- Standard IBM BSCA V24 interface

/^s-2^-2 iiffinfiflIltlJJUlUltt-Uliii!IIilH1ftt1t11tl1111!i!

- Modem: synchronous; leased or
public line; half duplex; 9600
baud maximum speed

- Direct connections need RX/TX
clocks iijiiiiiiiiiiijiiiiijijijm

Characteristics

o Remote control possible

o Automatic error correction

o Operation log per file

o CALL USING from local program

o Multi file jjjjjjjjjjjjj[|j}||llllll[|B|l| lj ;|lll|tl||^

o Multi record per block

o Maximum block size 512 bytes

o RJE support

o Automatic ASCII EBCDIC

translation !!!iiiiii!jjjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiJiiiiiiijiiiiii!j!

o Transparent mode with trans-
lation option for ASCII on receive
o Space compression
o Record size definition
o Adding and deleting of charac-
ters such as CRILF for each record
o Record separator as ITB or IRS
o Translation table modification
ASCII/EBCDIC/ASCII iiijjjjjijijijjjjiiijjijjjjj!!!!
o The PC can work as the host
o Installable on hard drive
o Manual or automatic execution
o The parameters (per file) can be
introduced from the keyboard or
from the parameter file iiiJiiiiiiiiiiiillUU
o Minimum configuration: IBM PC
with 128K and IBM BSC ASM card

PRICE $149

Inquiry 325
pivernate Pl*7* 444 Rrickell Avenue, Miami, FL 33101, 305/372-9332

Inquiry 14 2

At last, the breakthrough you've
been seeking in a database
management system.

FoxBASE M is more than just a relational database
management system. Because it's written in C,
FoxBASE is a highly portable, sophisticated
interpreter/compiler thaf s ultraquick. Very
economical. And dBASE II® source compatible
(including full macro usage).

FoxBASE emits compact object code and makes
automatic use of an 8087 or 80287 chip to let
you develop and run applications with
unsurpassed speed.

And for as little as $10 per license, you can
distribute FoxBASE with your applications.
FoxBASE even comes with a 30-day moneyback
guarantee.

MS-DOS $395. AOS/VS $995.
UNIX™ (priced according to host).

Don't be outfoxed by the others. Call or write
Fox Software today.

dBASE II is a registered trademark of AshtonTate. . ^

FOX SOFTWARE, INC-

27475 Holiday Lane, Perrysburg, OH; 43551
419-874-0162

CLUBS AND
NEWSLETTERS

American Cryptogram Association
(ACA), Mike Barlow, 123I7 Dalewood Dr.,
Wheaton, MD 20902, (514) 485-5381.
Newsletter. Annual fee: $15.

IUe National Association of Macin-
tosh Users, John Allen, POB 40045,
Portland, OR 97204-0045. Newsletter,
BBS, public-domain library. Users groups
join for free by sending newsletter.

TtHE Princeton (NJ) IBM-PC Users
Group, POB 291, Rocky Hill, Nj 08553.
Monthly meetings and newsletter, public-
domain software lib rary .

ItiE AppleWorks Users Group, Jim Willis,
1300 Hinton St., West Monroe, LA 71291.
Disk exchange. No dues.

IHe Cleveland County Bulletin Board,

Dan Wise, Shelby, NC 281 50. Free 24-hour
BBS at (704) 482-8012. 4 5 sections on
CP/M, S-100, UNIX/XENIX, and AI.

M300 and PC Report, Meckler Publish-
ing, 1 1 Ferry Lane W. Westport, CT 06880,
(203) 226-6967. Library applications for
M300 workstations and IBM PCs. 11
issues: $29.

CAD/CM Alert. Management Round-
table Inc., 824 Boylston St., Chestnut Hill,
MA 02 167. Newsletter for advanced auto-
mation professionals. 12 issues: $148.

CAR Workstation Alert. Management
Roundtable Inc., 824 Boylston St., Chest-
nut Hill, MA 02167. Newsletter for profes-
sionals in electronic design automation.
12 issues: $187.

$USR: IUe C Language/UNIX OS Users
Group, POB 55097, TUlsa. OK 74155.
Meetings, newsletter Membership fee: $30.

Indiana-Michigan Atari Group Ex-
change (IMAGE), POB 1742, South Bend,
IN 46634. Meetings, newsletter. Fee: $10.

Long Island NEC Users Group
(LINECUG), Jerry Worthing, 75 Weaving
Lane, Wantagh, NY 11793, (516) 73 5-2952.
Members receive catalog of PC-8000
public-domain software and supplements.

THE Micro Exchange. Kenneth Mac-
farlane, 3403 12th Street Rd., Greeley, CO
80631. Share, trade, buy, or sell equipment
through newsletter. Subscription: $10.

68796 Hacker's Newsletter. Victor
Frank, 124 50 Skyline Blvd., Woodside, CA
94062. (415) 851-7031. 10 issues: $20.

Computer Notes. Bill White, Box 1735,
Twin Falls, ID 83303. (208) 734-0746.
Newsletter of programs and tips. 6 issues:
$3.60.

Chicago Area North Star User Group
(CANSUG), Edgar Coudal, POB 9, Park
Ridge, IL 60068. Meetings, newsletter.

IUe Adirondack Color Computer Club.

Greene County Chapter, Peter Chast, POB
61. Athens, NY 12015. Meetings, chapters.

Plus/4 Users' Group (PLUG). Calvin Dem-
mon, Box 1001, Monterey, CA 93940.
Commodore Plus/4 user-written software
exchange, newsletter.

The II I Newsletter. Frank Moore, 3201
Murchison Way, Carmichael, CA 95608,
(916) 485-6525. Weekly, for Apple III users.
Annual subscription: $3 5.

Vector Newsletter. Ronald Tharpe, Vec-
tor Graphic Inc., 500 North Ventu Park Rd.,
Thousand Oaks, CA 91320, (805)
499-5831. For owners from the manufac-
turer. Call for a sample newsletter.

IHe Portable Paper. Personalized Soft-
ware, 906 West Briggs, Fairfield. IA 52 556,
(515) 472-6330. Bimonthly newsletter for
HP 110.

Southeastern AMIS BBS, POB 1041,
Matthews, NC 28106. Multipurpose BBS
at (704) 541-3306 for Atari, TRS, and Mac.
24 hours at 300 or 1200 bps. ■

CLUBS AND NEWSLETTERS is an
acknowledgment of new clubs and newsletters
received at BYTE. Please allow at least four
months for your club's mention to appear. Send
information to BYTE, Clubs and Newsletters.
POB 372, Hancock. NH 03449.

54 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 376-

The future.. . a little sooner than you expected!

The Panasonic Exec. Partner. What makes it an execu-
tive? The 7.16 MHz 8086-2 microprocessor for high-speed
processing. So you can do more in less time.

What makes it your partner? Like all ambitious achievers
the Panasonic Exec. Partner gets along with others. Namely
IBM hardware and software.

You'll also accomplish more with the new high-resolution
plasma display. It lasts four times longer, offers clearer defini-
tion and is easier to read than an ordinary screen.

The Exec. Partner's built-in dual mode printer will help

ACHIEVE THE POWER

AND SPEED OF TOMORROW'S

TECHNOLOGY. TODAY

INTRODUCING

THE EXEC PARTNER-FROM

PANASONIC."

you make a good impression. From silent, draft-quality mode
to correspondence quality.

The 256K internal memory has built-in expandability to
640K, So the Exec. Partner will run the most sophisticated
data base management programs. And its expansion slot
allows you to fulfill the needs of specific applications like
telecommunications and Local Area Networks.

Tomorrow's technology DonaCAIlir
for today's executives. The ^CM ICIOvl 111*
new Panasonic Exec. Partner. Industrial Company

Get a carrying case (model FXZC751) at no charge with any Exec. Partner purchased through 3/31/86. For the location

Of yOUr nearest participating dealer, Call 1-800- PI C-8086. IBM is the registered trademark of International Business Machines, Inc.

PC Paintbrush:

Because life is too short for

monochrome pie charts.

Fun

is the best thing

to have.

With PC Paintbrush, you can add color, flair,
dimension and creativity to a chart, a pre-
sentation, or an otherwise dull day. From
charts and graphs to serious computer art,
our newest generation 3.0 PC Paintbrush
will cheer you on with features no other
graphics package can match.

Best of all, it's easy to use. You don't have
to learn up to sixty commands, like you do
with some products. If you can understand
icons as simple as scissors, paintbrush,
spray can and paint roller, you're ready to
start using PC Paintbrush.

The pen is mightier
than the keyboard.

None of history's great artists drew with a
keyboard, and you shouldn't have to either
So PC Paintbrush is now available with a
Summasketch MM™ Series drawing tablet,
to give you complete freedom of expression.
Of course, it also supports regular mice, joy-
sticks, graphics tablets, and is compatible
with most graphics cards.

PC Paintbrush also has a beautiful way
with words. The text icon lets you write in
any of eleven fonts, in nine sizes, with italics,
outline, shadow and boldface variations.

What's more, with the new 3.0 PC
Paintbrush, you can draw rounded boxes,
rubber band curves and circles, and edit
pictures many times larger than the screen.

Are we making fun
of 1-2-3®? Why not?

For Lotus™ users, PC Paintbrush's new PIC

Go on, live a little.

,m

^2% IP'

/^/A/9^J

interpreter loads 1-2-3™ and Symphony™
charts and graphs at your equipment 7 s
best resolution, from an IBM EGA™ (640
X 350 X 16 colors) to a Number Nine
Revolution™ (512 X 512 X 256 colors).
With our FRIEZE™ frame grabberyou
can pull graphics created by any program
right off the screen into PC Paintbrush. So
you can take your Paintbrush and pallette
anywhere, improving the looks of things
asyou go. And having a lot of fun on the
way. In addition, ouroptional slide show
package, PC PRESENTATION, allows you to
program your graphics into a first class
presentation with fades, zooms, quick
cutsand animation.

PC Paintbrush supports 19 video graphics
cards and 30 printers and plotters.

For more information on PC Paintbrush,
call or write us at the address below, or ask
your computer dealer for
a demonstration.

Illlllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllliyillllllllllll

Z-SOFT

PC Paintbrush

Corporate Headquarters:

ZSoft Corporation, 1950 Spectrum Circle, Suite A 495, Marietta, GA 30067, 404/980-1950

West Coast Sales Office:
1 60 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., San Anselmo, CA 94960, 4 1 5/456-0955

PC Paintbrush is a trademarkof ZSoftCorporation, Lotus, 1-2-3, and Symphony are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation.
IBM and Enhance Graphics Adapter are registered trademarks of International Business Machines, Corp. Number Nine Revolution is a trademarkof Number Nine Computer Corp.

Summasketch is a registered trademark of Summagraphics Corp.

56 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 363

BOOK REVIEWS

VIDEOTEX/TELETEXT:
PRINCIPLES AND
PRACTICES
Antone F. Alber
McGraw-Hill
New York: 1985
512 pages, $32.95

TELECONFERENCING:

LINKING PEOPLE

TOGETHER

Kathleen Kelleher and

Thomas B. Cross

Prentice-Hall

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: 1985 '

303 pages, $32.95

PASCAL PRIMER
FOR THE MACINTOSH
Dan Shafer
The Waite Group
New American Library
New York: 1985
318 pages, $19.95

SILICONNECTIONS:
COMING OF AGE IN
THE ELECTRONIC ERA
Forrest M. Mims III
McGraw-Hill
New York: 1985
240 pages, $16.95

VIDEOTEX/TELETEXT PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

Reviewed by Wayne W. Shearer Jr.

Videotex has not found its way into many American
homes. Why? Well, that's just one of the subjects in
Antone F. Alber's excellent reference text, Videotex/Teletext:
Principles and Practices. I call this book a reference text
because that should be its position in your technical
library. The book is definitely designed for professionals
in the field, or those who want to become professionals.
It covers the gamut from videotex history to distribution-
system design to the corporate structure necessary to
operate a successful videotex service. And if it leaves any-
thing out, you need only refer to any of the source

materials listed at the end
of each chapter.

While I could hardly clas-
sify this book as easy
reading, neither can it be
called dry. Explanations of
videotex principles are
enhanced by examples, il-
lustrations, diagrams, and
pictures, including four
color pages of sample
videotex displays. The back
of the book contains a
glossary of industry terms
and an appendix defining
acronyms and abbrevia-
tions. By the time you have
finished this text, you have
a burning desire to see
videotex arrive in your
neighborhood: you can
also acquire the sobering
knowledge to understand
the difficulties and obsta-
cles involved in implemen-
ting such an information
network on a large, profit-
able scale.

The beginning of this
book introduces and ex-
plains the basics of video-
tex systems. In addition to
describing the history of
videotex through a discussion of such systems as Britain's
Prestel and France's r feletel, Alber precisely defines the
terms used in the industry and differentiates the mean-
ings of several misused terms. The most important of these
confusing labels are the terms videotex, teletext, and teletex.
Videotex, according to Alber, is the more generic term
referring to any system that allows the user to access data
from a remote computer by means of a modified TV set
or specially designed video-display terminal. The more
common form of videotex, used by CompuServe and The
Source, is called interactive videotex. In this system, the user
may request a frame of data for display, and that frame
will be transmitted specifically to the requesting user. This
form of videotex requires a two-way flow of information

{continued)

ILLUSTRATED BY BLAIR THORNLEY

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 57

ENHANCED GRAPHICS ADAPTER

Half the Size
Four Times the Memory

We've designed a smart EGA graphics card! It

packs in all the features of IBM adapter cards. That's
right, the MegaGraph® is fully compatible with the
IBM® Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA), IBM®
Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), IBM® Monochrome
Display Adapter (MDA).

We can do every graphics mode that IBM® can in a

card less than half-size, which
makes the card fit in any
slot of the IBM® PC, XT, or
AT as well as compatibles or
portables.

IBM® Drawing Assistant

Of course, the software
programs that run on the IBM
EGA® card will run on the MegaGraph. Examples
include AutoCAD™; IBM Drawing Assistant®; Gem
Draw™; Microsoft Windows™, Word and Chart; Lotus
1-2-3® and Symphony™ and many more.

There's no need to pay extra
for a piggyback memory card
which is optional on the IBM
EGA®. MegaGraph includes
256K byte of display memory. It
works with both monochrome
and R.G.B. monitors; simply switch between color or
monochrome displays. Our warranty is one year.
The price is only $499.00.

Call (408) 943-6629 for the dealer near you and for
more information about ATronics AT compatible
system boards.

GEM™

■SIM

1ATI

ATRONICS INTERNATIONAL INC.

491 Valley Way, Milpitas, CA
(408) 943-6629

Microsoft registered trademark of Mi rosoft Corporation. IBM registered trademark of
Internationa] Business Machines Corp. Lotus and 1-2-3 registered trademarks and
Symphony trademark of Lotus Development Corp. GEM trademarks of Digital Research
Inc. AutoCAD trademark of Autodesk.

BOOK REVIEWS

between the user and the computer system. This data is
usually carried over the phone lines, although in some
areas coaxial cable and fiber optics are used.

In broadcast videotex, what the author refers to as tele-
text, frames are constantly broadcast to all users on the
system. When a specific frame is requested, the receiver
selects that frame of data from the sequential stream be-
ing received and displays it on the video terminal. This
data is usually broadcast as part of a regular TV signal,
either over the air or on a cable system. The one-way
nature of the signal requires that the data available be
repeatedly broadcast and that the receiving terminal be
"smart" enough to select the specific frame of data re-
quested, 'feletex (notice the lack of the final t) is an up-
graded form of telex service that allows telex machines,
personal computers, word processors, and terminals to
transmit messages worldwide by way of a compatible mes-
sage system.

Protocols

Coverage of the basics is followed by a detailed discus-
sion of the North American Presentation-Level-Protocol
Syntax (NAPLPS) and the Videotex Presentation-Layer Pro-
tocol (VPLP), two competing videotex coding and control
standards. Alber provides a thorough description of the
various aspects of the two protocols, including alphanu-
meric coding, mosaic characters, and picture graphics. This
is complemented by code charts and structure diagrams.
Also, the seven-layer Open Systems Interconnection (OSI)
model for providing compatible data transmission be-
tween varying types of computer systems is explored.
Again, the author provides a detailed but concise explana-
tion of these technical subjects.

The Business

Alber describes the commercial aspects of a videotex sys-
tem. Finding information providers, selling the videotex
service, and marketing and advertising are covered in a
minicourse on business management. He discusses finan-
cial alternatives of different approaches to providing the
service, as well as employee requirements and cost
analysis. The information in these chapters is highly de-
tailed, including even an organizational chart and job
descriptions for upper management. Alber covers pric-
ing comparisons for some existing and hypothetical sys-
tems so precisely that the book must have been written
for use as a college text.

The end of the book wraps up some loose ends not
covered in other chapters, such as legal considerations
and governmental regulations. Social implications are
given a once-over, as are the possible security problems
in a public videotex system. Alber uses the last chapter
to do some reading of the tea leaves about the potential
and evolution of videotex.

I cannot recommend this book as an introduction to
videotex and teletex systems; that was not the author's

[continued)

58 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 30

Those who insist on C compiler performance
are very big on Mark Williams.

And the compiler is just part of our total C Programming System.

V *&*x These and other powerful
.^^yr utilities now included in the C
^v^r Programming System:
<£y • make: compiles only what's necessary
from multiple modules, a powerful pro-
gramming discipline

• diff: identifies differences between two files

• m4: macroprocessor expression editing
and substitution

• egrep: extended pattern search

• MicroEMACS: full screen editor with source

COMPILER FEATURES

• Runs under MS-DOS

• Full Kernighan & Ritchie C with recent
extensions including void and enum

• Register variables for fast, compact code

• Full UNIX™ compatibility and complete
libraries

• Large and small memory models

• MS-DOS linker compatibility

• 8087 Support

• One-step compiling

• English error messages

• ROMable code

• Linker, assembler, archiver

• Extensive third party library support

csd C SOURCE DEBUGGER

• Debugs at C source level without assembly
language

• Separate evaluation, source, program and
history windows

• Can execute any C expression

• Capabilities of a C interpreter, but runs in
real time

• Set trace points on any statement or variable

© 1985 Mark Williams Company

I NIX is a registered trademark of Bell Labs.

Inquiry 204

Mark Williams' C compiler has earned a place
in some very big companies for some very good reasons:
it proves the benchmarks right with the speed, code
density consistent performance and expert support
required in professional development environments.

But a total development tool shouldn't stop with
compiling. Or go on and on with extras that add up and up

Only Mark Williams' C Programming Systems
includes the csd C Source Debugger with true source
level debugging to speed your programming job.

And only Mark Williams' new 3.0 version includes
utilities like "make" to make quick work of even the
largest projects.

From source code to final product, only one takes
you all the way: Mark Williams' C Programming System.
All for only $495. Ask about our 30-day money back
guarantee when you call

1-800-692-1700 to order today* fiVAl Mark

You'll be big on the total III Williams

C Programming System from \A# Company

a yf I ivrii- j. 1 430 West Wrightwood

Mark WllliamS, tOO. Chicago, imnoii 60614

*In Illinois call 312-472-6659.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYT E 59

WhySTATPRO 2.0 (DOS)
Is The Best Statistical
Analysis Program Ever
Created For The IBM
PC/XT/AT

STATPRO is generally regarded as the best statistical
analysis software program on the market today.
Indeed, the November 5, 1985 issue of PC Week sur-
veyed a large number of statistical software pro-
grams and Statpro was the winner in terms of being
the most complete. (We have reprinted PC Week's
comparison table and will gladly send it to you
upon request).

Some Of The Nice Things About STATPRO 2.0

1. STATPRO 2.0 interrelates 3 different programs into
one superbly integrated package— namely: One pro-
gram to store and retrieve data, another for statistical
analysis of data, and another for constructing multi-
color graphs.

2. STATPRO 2.0 is incredibly fast due to DOS com-
patibility and the use of the 8087-80287 math
coprocessor.

3. STATPRO 2.0 is, quite simply, the most user-
friendly program you can purchase.

4. STATPRO 2.0 oners you a full repertoire of statisti-
cal techniques. These include descriptive statistical
measures, interval estimation, hypothesis testing,
analysis of variance, tests of goodness of fit and
independence, multiple linear regression and correla-
tion, time series analysis and forecasting, nonpara-
metric methods, factor, cluster, and discriminant
analysis and much more.

5. STATPRO 2.0's incredible cross tabulation module
offers you a convenient method of presenting and
analyzing multiple factor data in multi-dimensional
tables.

6. STATPRO 2.0 can store up to 32,000 records with
its database management system. This enables users
to organize, store and retrieve vast quantities of data
at a meaningful level of aggregation or detail.

7. STATPRO 2.0 adds a striking new visual dimension
to all your statistical analyses. You get high resolu-
tion "presentation quality' 7 multicolor charts, graphs,
histograms, distribution curves, regression plots, box
plots, pie charts and many more.

8. STATPRO 2.0 can read or write Lotus 1-2-3™,
Symphony™, dBasell/III™, and other files— no
intermediate file is required.

9. STATPRO 2.0 supports most popular printers and
plotters.

10. STATPRO 2.0 offers extensive documentation and
continual support through 'The STATPRO Hotline' 7
telephone service.

Order Today!

STATPRO 2.0 Costs $795
and comes with a 10-day
money-back guarantee.

Call us toll-free at

800-221-3414 Penton Software, Inc.

. n 420 Lexington Avenue

J> n i hT a™ o£nn Suite 2846 ' New York ' NY 10017 -

212-0/0- :/6UU STATPRO is *i iradrmdrk of I Vnton Software Inc.

BOOK REVIEWS

intention. What he attempted was a detailed discussion
of all the major aspects of the videotex industry. What
he produced is a compendium of information on an in-
dustry just beginning to surface as a major contender in
influencing the world of our future. If you have a profes-
sional interest in the videotex industry, you'll want to save
this book. It may be describing tomorrow.

Wayne W. Shearer Jr. (1143 South University Blvd., Denver, CO
80210) is a senior field engineer (or NEC \nformation Systems. He
has worked in the computer industry for 1 5 years.

TELECONFERENCING:

LINKING PEOPLE TOGETHER ELECTRONICALLY

Reviewed by David L. Salahi

Here is a book to introduce the reader to teleconfer-
encing, a fast-moving new technology that will in-
creasingly shape the way human beings interact in the
coming decade. The subtitle of this book, Linking People
Together Electronically, reflects a theme that runs through the
book: 'teleconferencing is about facilitating communica-
tion between people. The authors look at their topic from
this perspective.

Kathleen Kelleher and Thomas B. Cross write that the
attraction of teleconferencing is that it lets us "move ideas,
not people or paper." And ideas can be moved much more
quickly and less expensively than people. They discuss
other advantages of teleconferencing, including the
synergy of people working together, reduced need for
travel, elimination of geographical and temporal barriers,
and fewer problems scheduling meetings between busy
people. It's more democratic, they say, because it gives
access to people who wouldn't be able to attend certain
meetings, and it gives the vocally quiet person more of
a chance to be heard. Another benefit they cite is reduc-
tion of time lag in communications. All of these advan-
tages can be summed up as increased access to people
and information.

Technologies

Kelleher and Cross cover four types of teleconferencing
technologies: audio (telephone), audiographic (audio plus
still pictures), full-motion video, and computerized. Each
type is explored in some detail, and advantages and disad-
vantages are discussed. Audio teleconferencing is the
easiest and least expensive to use, requiring no special
equipment in many cases. In addition, it is accessible near-
ly anywhere through the worldwide dial-up network. For
more sophisticated users, the book covers specialized ser-
vices that can give the participants greater access to the
system as well as more control over it. Equipment such
as speakers, microphones, and audio-bridging devices is
discussed.

[continued)

60 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 387

Now the biggest name

in C compilers comes in a size

everybody can afford.

Let's C:

Introducing Mark Williams' $75 C compiler. Want to explore C programming for the first time? Or just
on your own time? Now you can do it in a big way without spending that way With I^t's C.

This is no little beginner's model. Let's C is a powerful programming tool, packed with all the
essentials of the famous Mark Williams C Programming System. The one chosen by Intel, DEC, Wang

and thousands of professional programmers. The one that wins the

benchmarks and the reviewers' praise:

"(This compiler) has the most professional feel of any package we tested. . ."—BYTE

"Of all the compilers reviewed, (it) would be my first choice for product

development."— David W. Smith, PC WORLD

And now for more big news. Get our revolutionary csd C Source

Debugger for just $75, too.
Use this coupon or charge by calling toll-free:
1-800-MWC-1700. In 111. call 312-472-6659.

Mark Williams Let's C

• For the IBM-PC and
MS-DOS

• Fast compact code plus
register variables

• Full Kernighan & Ritchie C
and extensions

• Full UNIX" compatibility
and complete libraries

• Small memory model

• Many powerful utilities
including linker,
assembler, archiver, cc
one-step compiling, egrep,
pr, tail, wc

• MicroEMACS full screen
editor with source

• Supported by dozens of
third party libraries

• Upgradeable to C
Programming System for
large scale applications
development

Let's C Benchmark Done on
an IBM-PC/XT, no 8087.
Program: Floating Point
from BYTE, August, 1983.

Exec Time in Seconds
Let's C 134.20

MS 3.0 347.45

Mark Williams Let's C

$75

— i

Please send me:

copies of Lctfc C and copies of csd (C Source Debugger)

at S75 each, (III. residents add 7% sales tax. )
□ Check D Money Order □ Visa, MasterCard or
American Express

Name

Address-

City-

Zip.

Card #_

I-xp. Date-

Signature.

You can breeze through
debugging at the C source
level ignoring clunk} 7
assembler code.

Affordable, powerful,
debuggable. Mark Williams
Let's C is the big name C
compiler at a price you can
handle. Get your hands on
it now

Mark

Williams

Company

1430 West Wrightwood
Chicago, Illinois 60614

Inquiry 205

© 1985 Murk Williams

UNIX is a trademark oflk-ll l.ahs.

IBM PC XT Compatible Computer runs
DOS 2.1, 3.1, Lotus, Wordstar, dBase
111, and any known software. XT-Plus
has eight Slots, 640KB memory on
Mother Board.

Limited time special offer: 640KB CPU,
Floppy Controller, Keyboard, Parallel
Port, Serial Port, Game Port, Clock, two
360 KB Disk Drives all for $699

(Suggested Retail Price $1399.)

AMERICAN MICRO TECHNOLOGY

(714) 972-2945
TWX 5106003265

1322 E. Edinger, Santa Ana, CA 92705

IBM PC, XT AT

& COMPATIBLES

at Wholesale Prices

A^T an IBM PC ATCompatibleComputer

VSJv 640K on Board, 1.2MB Disk Drive,

Z|fO 20 MB Disk Drive, Keyboard $ 1995

/c.jj^i^h Retail Price $3995.)

(8 MGhz Option $50.00 extra)

Toshiba Drive 360KB 79.00

1.2MB Disk Drive for AT 129.00

20MB Hard Drive w/Controller and Cables 449.00

10MB Tape Back Up Drive for XT 299.00

10MB Tape B/U Drive for AT 375.00

135 watt Power Supply 79.00

195 watt Power Supply 125.00

FDC with P/P, S/P, Clock & Game Port 99.00

AT Mother Board 899.00

XT Mother Board (640K capacity OK) 125.00

Floppy/HD Controller for AT 219.00

(Some of the above items for quantity purchase only)

AMT

(714) 972-2945

TWX 5106003265

«fc

^

%.

*/

BOOK REVIEWS

With audiographic teleconferencing technology users
can transmit images as well as words. This can provide
a necessary extra dimension for technical discussions or
it can be used to convey pictures of the participants as
each one speaks in turn. Depending on resolution, an
image can be transmitted in about 30 to 90 seconds. The
authors list a variety of source devices that can be used
to send images to conference participants: microfiche, fac-
simile, slide projectors, computer graphics, slow-scan TV,
and telewriting systems. This last category includes light
pens, electromechanical pens, electronic tablets, and elec-
tronic blackboards.

To understand the application of full-motion video tele-
conferencing, consider the adage "A picture is worth a
thousand words and a feeling is worth a million facts." For
certain types of communication, the feedback and visual
cues provided by this technology are indispensable. These
include applications involving motivation, negotiation, and
other instances where the emotionality, urgency or inten-
sity of the participants must be conveyed.

This technology commands a high price, however, and
is not for everyone. The prices are attributable to the high
capital costs of equipment, the high bandwidth required
for transmission, and the host of production and technical
personnel required. The authors go into considerable
detail about each area, outlining the types of equipment
available and the roles of the different people needed to
make a full-motion video teleconference work.

Kelleher and Cross describe computer teleconferencing
systems, which are essentially high-powered versions of
the bulletin-board systems that have become so popular
among computer users. Computer conferencing can be
conducted either in real time, in which all participants are
on line simultaneously, or asynchronously. In an asyn-
chronous conference, the users access the conference
whenever they want to read comments left by other par-
ticipants and add their own. In this way, the comments
of the entire group are collected in one place to provide
a transcript of the group's proceedings. Any number of
conferences and subconferences can be available for ac-
cess by the users of the service. In addition, electronic
mail is almost always a part of such systems.

The book points out that the structure of the communi-
cation in a computer teleconference is quite different from
a face-to-face meeting. The structure is dictated in part
by the hardware (keyboard and monitor) but also to a large
extent by the software. Thus, a well-designed system can
build in cues to shape the interactions of the participants.
The authors mention some of the parameters of commu-
nication that can be influenced by the system, including
the roles of the participants, the topics under discussion
and the order of presentation, the tempo of the discus-
sion, appropriate types of responses to be elicited, and
the expected level of technicality of the discussion.

The authors profile several large computer telecon-
ferencing systems such as EIES, Notepad, Genie, Matrix,

[continued)

62 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 19

The source of
many computer
malfunctions

iTF\irp

right under
your feet.

■

•^^^

8|,

■ 'l 1

^^ 11

*Sf

^pm ^E

Q&s^m

-iLa^a

%&$ ' f

JES^

v ,■•;<*'/.'< <?i^L. ®

WME El.ECTRO N , CS SLACKS*'

., ELIMINATE
s «fely a Instant

UNSCENTED
Dry Formula

NETWT.60Z.

Spray

Static Guard
on your

carpet to

eliminate

static that can destroy

computer information.

w

Every time you come in contact
with a carpet you generate static
electricity that can affect your
computer.

It can cause annoying glitches in
programs. Loss of memory that can
wipe out several hours work. Even
permanent damage to microchips.

But spraying Static Guard™ on
the carpet safely eliminates static
problems. Use it near all kinds of
computer workstations, word
processors, printers, modems or
other sensitive electronic equip-
ment. And help keep your system
problem-free.

Static Guard™ is available in your
local supermarket or drugstore.
And right now we're offering a
free sample!

So send the coupon. And keep
static from getting underfoot.

© 1986 ALBERTO-CULVER COMPANY

Inquiry 1 2

FREE SAMPLE
OFFER ON

static guard:

For your free STATIC GUARD"' sample, complete th isf orm
and send it to:

STATIC GUARD SAMPLE OFFER

P.O. BOX 503

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, ILLINOIS 60070

City_

_State_

-Zip_

No facsimiles accepted. Limit one per customer. Offer expires
July 31. 1986. Please allow4-6 weeks for delivery. D

m , : ?j

Confidence Game.

It's knowing that the friendly voice at
the other end of the line understands what
you're saying. Can answer your techni-
cal questions, verify prices and shipping
schedules. Or make good suggestions.

Join the Micro Mart Confidence Game.

Trust Micro Mart for immediate infor-
mation and advice on almost any micro-
computer product. Our 15 million dollar
inventory is on-line to our mainframe so
we can verify, order, deliver and service.
Without delay.

Call us with confidence.

COMPUTERS

AT&T Color and Mono Systems in
stock Start at $1795

MULTIFUNCTION
BOARDS

We have a complete line of Multi-
function Boards compatible with the
Portable, XT/AT.

SIX PAK 64-384K, multifunc.

I/O MINNIE I/O shortboard for

Portable & AT New Low Price!

ADVANTAGE 128K-3Mb,
expansion for AT

RAMPAGE 64K-2Mb.

.NEW!

QUADRAM Quadboard Loaded,

384K CALL!

QUADRAM Goldboard, 384K $459
TECMAR Captain 0-384K,

multifunc. $175

1ALLTREE J-RAM II Call!

GRAPHIC CARDS

HERCULES Mono & Color
Graphics cards _New Low Price!
TECMAR Graphics Master, HiRes
Color & Mono supports Lotus $449
QUADRAM Quadcolor I & II color

cards

PARADISE Multi-display or modular

graphics cards From $199

STB Chauffeur & EGA Plus

From $289

SIGMA Color 400 for PGS SR-12_
New Low Price!

FLOPPY DISK
DRIVES

TANDON TM 100-2, DD/DS,

360K New low, low price!

1/2 HEIGHT Disk Drives from
Shugart, Mitsubishi, TEAC and
Toshiba. PC, XT & AT Compatible.

From $99

BEST SUPPLY ON EAST COAST

HARD DISCS

IRWIN/TANDBERG Tape back-up

systems From $495

SEAGATE Fast 10, 20, 30 and 75

Meg. for PC & AT From $495

SYSGEN Complete line Call

for our special Sysgen pricing!
BERNOULLI TECHNOLOGY Hard

disc Subsystems From $2595

PRIAM Superfast 40 & 60 Meg.

for AT Call!

INTERDYNE 10 Meg. Reel to Reel

Tape Back-up $439

Best availability of voice coil
and stepper motor hard drives

with high quality controllers

From $495

SOFTWARE

ACCOUNTING SPREADSHEETS &
INTEGRATED PACKAGES

SORCIM/IUS Complete line in-
cluding Windows. From $295/each
SORCIM SuperCalc 3, vers. 2.0_
New Low Price!

ENHANCEMENTS & UTILITIES
FOX & GELLER Complete line for

dBase ll/lll, RBase 4000

NORTON Utilities 3.0 $69

NETWORKING/

PROTOCOL

CONVERSION

SNA &BISYNC 3780, 5251. Mod
11 & 12, 3274, 3278.

ROSESOFTProKey3.0.

.$89

CENTRAL POINT SOFTWARE

Copy II PC $35

SOFTSTYLE Set FX+ and
Printworks, printer control.

SIDEWAYS Inverts printout $35

BORLAND SideKick and

SuperKey From $40

BORLAND Lightning and Reflex

New! Call!

COMPILERS & LANGUAGE TOOLS

LATTICE C-Compilers $279

MICROSOFT Complete line

MICROSOFT QuickBasic

PC TURBO 186/187 board, 128K,
8087 Serial Board attached_$875
IRMA Complete line From $849

PRINTERS

We have thousands in stock.

DOT MATRIX

EPSON FX85/286 NEW!

EPSON LQ1500/LQ800/LQ1000

New Prices!

OKIDATA 192 & 193, ML84,
Pacemark 2410

OKIDATA NEW 2000 SERIES

NEW!

TOSHIBA P-341, P-351 & 1340

New Low Prices!

NEC New P-5 Low Price!

LETTER QUALITY

NEC Spinwriters 2050, 3550,
8850 New Low Prices!

BORLAND Turbo Pascal, Turbo
Toolbox & more_From $35/each

GRAPHICS
Z-SOFT PC Paintbrush, mouse

graphics $95

DECISION RESOURCES

Char tMaster_ Latest Version $239

MICROSOFT Chart $169

COMMUNICATIONS
MICROSTUF Crosstalk XVI, Latest
version $99

New Low Price! EPSON DX10, DX20, & DX35 _

New Letter Quality Printers!

We carry a full range of form
handling options.

chips

All our chips are tested and priced

for quick sale. Call us!

INTEL 8087, 80287, high speed

coproc Call for Market Price.

64K-256K RAMCHIPS

HAYES Smartcom II.

.$85

WORD PROCESSING

MULTIMATE w/spelling checker &

tutorial New Low Price!

SAMNA+ $329

MICROSOFT Word. New version.
New Low Price!
LIFETREE Volkswriter Deluxe $169
SSI WordPerfect, version 4.1 $249
MICROPRO WordStar Professional

series New Low Price!

OFFICE &

PROJECT PLANNING

HARVARD Total Project Manager.

$299

SORCIM/IUS Super Project_$199

MICROSOFT Project $175

DATA BASE MANAGERS

Call for unadvertised Data Base
Managers.

Call for Market Price.

128K Piggy-back chips for your
AT Call for Market Price.

MODEMS

HAYES Smartmodem 300, 1200,
1200B & 2400. We have the best

stock in the USA Call!

VEN-TEL 1200 Baud Half Card

w/Crosstalk $399

PEACHTREE TECHNOLOGIES
P-1200 ext. $269

MISCELLANEOUS

.$25

MAXELL Diskettes.
DYSAN Diskettes at the lowest

price in the USA Call!

MOUSE SYSTEMS PC Mouse,

optical w/software $139

MICROSOFT Mouse, bus or serial
mechanical.New Model In Stock!
KEYTRONICS 5151 keyboards $149
KEYTRONICS 5153 Keyboard with

mouse NEW!

KENSINGTON MICROWARE

MasterPiece $99

CURTIS Accessories, Pedestals,
cables, etc.
GRAVIS Joysticks.

_$45

QUADRAM Microfazer print buffer

8-128K From $129

TRIPPELITE ISOBAR surge
protectors, 4 & 8 plug __ From $49
POLAROID Palette $1245

MONITORS
AND CRTS

PGSMax12(E),HX12, HX12(E), &

SR-12 New Low Prices!

$379

AMDEK Color 600

AMDEK 722, New alternative to

IBM enhanced monitor

AMDEK 300A/300G/310A_

.$569

$129/$119/$165

©Copyright 1985, Micro Mart, Inc.
Technology Corporate Campus
3159 Campus Drive
Norcross, Georgia 30071

Prices are subject to change
without notice and are similar,
but may vary at over 20 Micro
Mart Retail Stores.

Leasing and financing options

are available. MasterCard/VISA

or ask for

Micro Mart

Blue Chip

Credit.

BT 2-86

(404) 449-8089

Orders only

1-800-241-8149

MICRORIM 5000, Report Writer &

Clout New Low Price!

WARNER SOFTWARE The Desk

Organizer $145

MICROSTUF Infoscope $99

America's PC Specialist

Inquiry 220

FEBRUARY 1 986 • BYTE 65

Western computer

BREAKS THE

PRICE/PERFORMANCE

BARRIER

Iff!

WESTERN COMPUTER AT TURBO

STANDARD FEATURES:

■ IBM PC/AT Compatible with 512K RAM

■ Switch Selectable 6 or 8 MHz operation

■ Up to 2 Megabytes of RAM on Main board

■ One Parallel Port & Clock/Calendar on Main
board

■ Enhanced PC/AT style keyboard

■ Various mass storage and video display options
available

■ One Year Warranty

"Mm

WESTERN COMPUTER PC/XT TURBO

STANDARD FEATURES:

■ IBM PC/XT Compatible with 256K RAM

■ Switch Selectable 4.77 or 8 MHz operation

■ Up to 1 Megabyte of RAM on Main board

■ Two 360K Floppy disk drives and controller

■ 750 x 350 Monochrome graphics controller or
IBM CGA compatible controller

■ Amber or green display monochrome monitor

■ Enhanced IBM PC style keyboard

■ Various mass storage, I/O, and Video display
option available

■ One Year Warranty

Western Computer

1381 WARNER AVE.
WARNER CORPORATE PARK #B, TUSIN, CA 92680

(714) 259-7755
EUROPEAN HEAD OFFICE

BELECTRONIC SA, RUE CENTRALE 43

CH-1880-BEX, SWITZERLAND

PHONE (025) 631250

TELEX 456 168 ASWERBACK BELE CH.

IBM PC/XT/AT/CGA are trademarks of \&A corp.

Inquiry 354 for End-Users.
66 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986 Inquiry 355 for DEALERS ONLY.

BOOK REVIEWS

and Augment. These systems are very powerful but very
expensive and run on minicomputers or mainframes. I
would have liked to see discussions of some smaller
systems such as MIST CONEXUS, which runs on the IBM
Personal Computer. Furthermore, these systems almost
all represent the first generation of such software. In a new
and rapidly evolving field such as this, it would be nice
to see where the technology is and where it's going.

Social Dimensions

As stated previously, the authors recognize that telecon-
ferencing must mesh with the existing social and organiza-
tional structure of a company. Implementors of any such
system must take the existing channels of communication
into careful account. However, the book covers systems
analysis and group communications almost as much as
teleconferencing. (More than 100 pages is given to the
discussion of topics related to management of human
resources, meetings, and the implementation of a system.)
This concern for the human element is laudable, but much
of this information exists elsewhere already. In a book on
teleconferencing, I would have expected more on the tech-
nology and its future directions. While the human element
is important, perhaps the authors could have limited this
discussion to only those aspects that are directly affected
by teleconferencing technology.

Kelleher and Cross have done a good deal of research
and have presented a thoughtful treatment of all aspects
of teleconferencing. The book gives the reader a solid
grounding in the basics of each of the technologies and
in the dynamics of human interaction. Of course, actually
implementing a teleconferencing system entails a good
deal more learning, a process that can be started by con-
tacting some of the numerous companies listed in the
resource reference at the back of the book.

Though the price of the book might discourage the
casual reader, it should not give pause to anyone seriously
contemplating the use of this technology. In addition to
providing an introduction to the world of teleconferenc-
ing, the book serves to expand the reader's awareness
to include options for doing business you would never
have thought of or would have dismissed as impossible.
My horizons have certainly been broadened, and I now
know where to look for more information if I need it.

David L. Salahi (90 Streamwood, Irvine, CA 92714) is a computer
programmer interested in music, graphics, surveying, and
telecommunications.

PASCAL PRIMER FOR THE MACINTOSH

Reviewed by Scott L. Norman

D

an Shafer's Pascal Primer for the Macintosh is by no
stretch of the imagination a textbook, and it makes

[continued)

BUSINESS

SCIENCE

EDUCATION

STATISTICAL
PACKAGES

data-analysis software from: dlfllwOlI
unbeatable power and flexibility for unbeatable prices!

We developed complete,
high-performance
statistical packages
for all computers:

# Hlr [rtlt BiEnini Ail uniued Non-Coremetnc Grnpln:i

—* •

"iDlsplmj Daln
DeicrlptlLiR Stallillrt
r-tm - Inoepctiaent Samples
Wejl - 1 on rioted SomDIet
Corielnllon
CrositobulBlion ontl f rrqurncy

! Ill

.;•"'

'\

I*. ,°C>. *»£*- I

1. STATISTICAL SUPPLEMENT FOR LOTUS 1-2-3 ,M (number one

statistical add-on for LOTUS and Symphony , also reads files from
many other programs, can be used as a stand-alone statistical package,
runs on IBM and all compatibles, 256k, 2dd, 8087 support)

2. STATFAST (the first stand-alone and still the most powerful statistical
package developed for the Macintosh™ 128k or 512k, 1dd)

3. APP-STAT (a complete statistical package for the Apple II™ family of
computers, 1dd)

4. PSYCHOSTAT-3 (a complete statistical package, available for Kaypro™
and all CP/M™ computers, 1dd)

$149

$119

$99

$99

All of these statistical packages are user friendly and super-easy to use. They include
the full range of basic statistical analyses (descriptive statistics, t-tests, correlations,
cross-tabulations, nonparametric statistics, and more) and advanced multivariate
statistics (multiple regression, multifactor analysis of variance and covariance,
repeated measures, contrasts, unbalanced designs, and more). All packages can
handle data files of unlimited size, include flexible Data Editors, and can access data
files from spreadsheets, data-bases, and mainframes. If you are interested in statistical
analysis on micro computers, call us! Our technical staff can advise you and
recommend the best program for your needs.

Please add $5 for shipping and handling. To place your order or
talk to our technical staff for more information, call or write:

STATSOFT

2831 EAST 10TH STREET, SUITE 3, TULSA, OK 74104
(918)583-4149

LOTUS 1-2-3, Symphony, IBM, Macintosh, Apple II, Kaypro, and CP/M are registered trademarks of respective companies.

Inquiry 3I2

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 67

Still the Best
after 10 years!

il

2 DS/DD 360K Disk Drive

364 RAM Memory. Amber 20 MHz monitor Pi3
Binli in ROM Diagnostics, 1 Expansion Slot
CZF-H8-42BU 1 ,350

One Plus

7 Expansion Slots

CZF-159-42BU 1 ,850

i One Plus

d Disk System. 20 Meg Winning 1/DS/DD 36QK
364 RAM Memory, 8 MHz with 7 Expansion Slots
CZW-158-42BU 2,429

New Advance Technology
PC IBM PC/AT Compatible

Single DS 00 ».2Meg Disk Diive

512K RAM, Serial Parallel

Amber 20 MHz Monitor (P.3)

Expandability for up to 12 simultaneous users

CZF-241-B1 , Call

I]
£1

Four Plus

Hard Oisk System

Same as above including 40 Meg Hard Disk

CZW-241-82BU

Call

Portables i^ Quality IBM Compatible
Back Lit Screen B MHz 640 x 200 Oot Graphs
2 Standard DS/DD 3S0KOrives 14.3 lbs. 250K RAM
CM71-42 1 ,995

Trans Portable

2 OD 360K Drives

8 MHz Clock, 128KRAM 24.2 lbs

CZF-138-2J "I ,299

ZVM 122/123 79

ZVM 124 I8M Amber 149

ZVM 130 Color 269

ZVM 131 Color 249

ZVM 133 RGB 429

ZVM 135 RGB 'Color 459

ZVM 136 RGB Color 530

1220, 1230. 1240 Call

~-±HARDDlSK$ — -
PRICE BREAKTHRU

Add-In Kits Call

External Kits Call

AT Upgrades Call

MODEMS
Q)Hayes- JInchog

Canon

Laser Beam Printer

Many Advantages ovnr HP
No Additional Cost Quantity Discounts

IBM Parallel Interface

It can THINK! It's a Oiablo 630

4 Resident Fonts

Downloadable Fonts

Choose number of copies from

keyboard or software

for BEST PRICE Call

All systems include FREE Word Processing software.

"•>> I " f

mile ■

Suplies ^^^^»- ! :

Last ^B-Zj|j

Hi Res. Metal Cabinet

1-9 79

10-19 70

20 up 68

Large Otiantity Call

CanoiM 40

Impact Oot Matrix Printer

Near Letter quality 23 X 18 matrix

140 cps

3 kinds ot Graphic Image

Selectable Uneleeding

IBM Printer Compatible

Push Feed Adjustable Tractor

Fanfold Single Sheet &

Multipart Copy Paper Usable

Many More Features . . . Only S259

Our networking and integration department has

serviced many of the Fortune 50 companies for the past

5 years. Call and discuss your applications.

SPERRY

New Speiry IT

Fully IBM PC/AT

Compatible

Available lor

Immediate Delivery

Call for Configurations

and Pricing

Call us for the

best prices on pretested,
warranteed Mother boards and
Option Cards. We supply only
burned in, pretested boards from
American Business Computers

PAPER

m" % 11" Keen Edge. . ..29

81" x IV Standard 27

14Va"x 11" Standard 38

20 lb — other weights available
2700 sheets per case

Build your own PC

or we will do it for you!

RAM Megaframe

Software Development
System

2 20 Meg Winchesters
200 Watt Power Supply
Complete 2/Oouble 00S
Compiles 2 separate programs on 2
Winchesters at the same time.
Call for price!

PC-XT Compatible inci.

B40KRAM. 2 DS/0D Disks 36DK

135 Watt Power Supply

1-RS232 Serial Pod 1 Parallel Pt.

Real Time Clock - Cal Bat Backjp

RAM Disk, Print Spooler

Assembled & Tested! Everything you

need except Monitoi & Caid

1 - 1,059 2-3 1,000 4-10 975

20 Meg Version 1,575

RAM 640 XT Plus

20 Meg Hard Disk

Version of our porular

PC/XT Compatible

With: Hi-Res

Amber Monitor & Video Card

Complete for only 1.775

Add-Ons for IBM " PC & Compatibles

Disk Controller Card 44 Game Adapter

Disk 1/0 Card (2 Serial. Parallel Color Graphics Card

Clock & Game) 113 Color Card/Parallel Port

Parallel Printer Card 23 Mono Graphic Cd/Printar Port . .

Hi-Res Mono Card 85 Speaker

Serial Card 30 1/0 Plus Card

PC Add Dns

Quadram

AST

Call

Call

Call

Call

Everex

Call

r ORDERING INFORMATION: Order by check, Mastercard or VISA. Personal checks take 15 days to clear, no waiting on certified checks
or money orders. Add 3% shipping and handling on all orders (minimum S2.Q0| Mail, AP0/FP0. Air may require additional charges. PA
residents add 6% sales tax. MA residents add 5%. All items subject to availability. Prices subject to changes. Additional discounts available
to qualified educational institutions

l Requests for bid on volume requirements invited. Dealer inquiries invited, j

"~ ' Leases Available

Use our TOLL FREE Order Line Mon-Fri9am-6pm EST

800-822-1211

m In PA: 215-822-7727

. WW#IYI rV I CK9 252 BETHLEHEM PIKE, COLMAR, PENNSYLVANIA 18915

BOOK REVIEWS

no pretense of dwelling on the theoretical principles of
its subject. There is very little discussion of structured pro-
gramming in general, and this may be the only Pascal book
in existence that is totally devoid of the language's syn-
tax diagrams.

Pascal Primer fills another need. It might be the one book
to read if you are a novice who wants to be able to write
nontrivial Macintosh Pascal programs in the shortest pos-
sible time. The book captures the style and pace of the
most successful teach-yourself efforts I have seen, and
perhaps too much BASIC really does spoil you for the
newer languages.

Thus this primer seems best suited to the aspiring Mac
programmer who functions outside a formal computer
science setting. Shafer mentions another potential au-
dience: experienced Pascal programmers who want a
quick briefing on the special features of the Mac dialect.
Its appeal to that group is questionable. While Pascal ini-
tiates can certainly pick up useful information here, the
Reference Manual and Technical Appendix furnished with the
language are probably more appropriate for them to use.

Introductory Material

Pascal as implemented on the Macintoshes an interactive,
interpreted language (see the preview by G. Michael Vose
in the June 1984 BYTE, page 136). Feedback from the in-
terpreter and the insight provided by the special windows
that can be opened to monitor a running program en-
courage the student to experiment.

Pascal Primer supports this approach. The book is liberally
laced with routines that you are encouraged to enter,
check, run, and modify. Most of them are short so as not
to induce typing fatigue. The blue ink and small sans serif
type used for the program code can be difficult to read,
however. Most chapters end with a summary and exer-
cises. Possible answers to many of them (most are pro-
gramming problems without unique answers) appear in
an appendix.

The book introduces Macintosh Pascal's menus, win-
dows, and editing and debugging features. The automatic
formatter (which indents the source code, puts reserved
words in boldface, and generally deals with matters of pro-
gram legibility) is briefly described. In my opinion, this
feature makes the built-in editor much more attractive than
a separate text processor for preparing code.

After describing the structure of the Pascal program,
Shafer introduces the concepts of variable types and then
defines the principal types of control statements. He does
this with plenty of consideration for the novice; for ex-
ample, he provides a good explanation of how the WHILE
and REPEAT. . . UNTIL constructs differ in treating a loop
that should execute just once— or not at all— in a given
program.

At this point, Shafer introduces QuickDraw graphics.
Topics include the control of pen size and pattern, the use
of MoveTo and LineTo commands to write high-speed

{continued)

68 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 4

We have over 1000 Software
and hardware items in stock.
Shipments on almost all
items within 24 hours!

Call for programs
not listed

WAREHOUS

DATA
PRODUCTS

FREE SOFTWARE!
With over $100 purchase you
will receive a free diskette for
your IBM PC with label maker,
checker game and banner
programs.

Technical & Other
Info. (602) 246-2222

TOLL-FREE ORDER LINE 1-800-421-3135

SOFTWARE

DATA BASE MANAGERS

Clipper $345

Clout 2 129

Condor III 299

Fox and Geller Quickcode 145

Fox and Geller Quickreport 145

Knowledgeman 225

Knowledgeman II 309

K Paint 60

K Graph 135

K Text 105

K Report 135

Nutshell 55

PFS: File 78

Power Base 2.1 199

RBase 5000 Call

Think Tank 95

Tim IV 169

WORD-PROCESSING

Easy (Micro Pro) 89

Leading Edge w/Merge/Spell 130

M icrosoft Word 230

Multimate3.31 205

Multimate Advantage 255

Oasis Word Plus 85

Peachtext 5000 145

PFS: Write 78

Random House Spell Checker 36

Samna III 3.0 265

Volkswriter Deluxe 139

Word Perfect 4.1 195

Wordstar 170

Wordstar Propac 238

Wordstar 2000 238

Wordstar 2000+ 285

SPREADSHEETS

Microsoft Multiplan 115

PFS: Plan 78

Supercalc II 145

Supercalc III 2.1 175

Twin 79

ACCOUNTING

BPI Accounts Payable 299

BPI Account Receivable 299

BPI General Accounting 299

BPI Payroll 299

Cyma Call

Dollars and Sense 95

MBSI Call

Tobias Managing Your Money 94

PFS Graph 78

Signmaster 135

TCS. Big Four equivalent of Peachtree
Series 4 - Specially augmented and
customized for your IBM PC Terminal
and Printer - GL, AR, PA, AP, CP/M-80,
CP/M-86 for PC XT, DOS 1.1, 2.0.
Each Module $65 For All Four $249

INTEGRATED

Enable '.. Call

Smart Software Call

TRANSFER PROGRAMS

Crosstalk XVI 89

Hayes Smartcom II 88

Microsoft Access 149

Move-It 79

Remote 99

GRAPHICS

Chartmaster 21 5

Dr. Halo II 99

Energraphics w/o Plotter 170

Energraphics w/Plotter 220

Fontrix 99

Freelance 199

Graphwriter/Combo 310

Microsoft Flight Simulator 30

PC Paint Brush 69

INCREDIBLE
VALUE!

Nationally advertised boards for
IBM PC and compatibles at
giveaway prices.

1 year warranty

5151 Equivalent Keyboards $89

Monochrome Board w/Prlnter

Port $79

Hercules Graphic Board Equivalent
with Parallel Port $99

Expansion Board to 576 K $59

AST Six Pack Equivalent
with game port $99

Four Drive Floppy Controller . . . $45

Color Card without printer port. $79

Color Card with printer port $95

IBM PC CLONE

256K Expandable to 640K on the
motherboard, 2 drives 7 expansion
slots $695

HARDWARE

AST Sixpack (384K) 259

Hercules Color Card 145

Hercules Graphics Card 289

J RAM III Call

Paradise Five Pak 119

Paradise Modular Graphics Card 249

Quadram Board with Par/Ser

and Game Port 199

Quadcolor I 185

Sigma Maximizer Multifunction 149

STB Chauffeur Board 249

STB Mono Board 155

AB Parallel Print Switch w/cables 75

Mini Micro Parallel Print Buffer 69

COMPUTERS

Corona PC Call

LANGUAGES

Concurrent PC/Dos Call

Fortran 77 208

Lattice C Compiler 249

Run C Interpreter 89

Microsoft C Compiler 239

M icrosoft Fortran 209

Microsoft Macro Assembler 89

M icrosoft Pascal Compiler 178

Microsoft Quick Basic 65

Multi Halo 140

UTILITIES

Copy II PC 19

Copy II PC Board 79

Copywright 45

Norton Utilities 3.1 52

PC Tools 22

Prokey 4.0 75

Superkey 35

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Harvard Project Manager 199

M icrosoft Project 150

Super Project 165

HARDWARE

HARD DRIVES

Bernoulli 20 MB Vfe ht 2439

Seagate 20 MB Internal w/Controller ... 499
Turbo 10 internal 529

MODEMS

Anchor Express 235

Hayes 1200 Call

Hayes 1 200B w/Sof tware Call

Hayes 2400 599

Promodem 1 200B w/Software 265

Promodem 1 200 .309

RAM

64K 150NS Chips (Set of 9) 10.50

256K Ram Chips (Set of 9) 27

BOARDS

AST Advantage 359

Sperry PC Mono 256K Dual Drive
Serial Port, Clock, MS/DOS 2.11
$1650

IBM PC-AT Call

ITT Computers PC Compatible 256k
Dual Drive. Mono, MS/DOS 1395

ITT XP 80286 IBM/PC Compatible, 512K,
10 MB Winchester, 3 times faster than an
XT. 30% faster than an AT $2650

Zenith 171 Call

PRINTERS

FREE! PRINTER SET SOFTWARE

Purchase an Okidata, Epson, Gemini,
Citizen or Toshiba printer and receive at
no charge a menu driven program to set
print characteristics or to make your com-
puter function as a correcting typewriter.
Retail value $35. Available for most disk
formats.

CITIZEN

MSP-10 :.... 255

MSP-15 355

MSP-20 329

Citizen 120D 169

Premiere 35 Daisywheel 415

EPSON - Call on all models
JUKI

Juki 6100 349

Juki 6300 685

NEC

3550 989

8850 1349

P5 Parallel 995

Elf 360 398

OKIDATA - Call on all models
PANASONIC

1091 239

1092 320

1093 429

KXP3151 410

STAR MICRONICS - Call for prices
TOSHIBA

1340 460

P351 1049

P341 875

MONITORS

AMDEK Call for price

Taxan 610 319

Taxan 121 Green 125

Taxan 122 Amber 134

Princeton Max 12 169

TERMS: Prices include 3% cash discount. Add 3% for
charge and C.O.D. orders. Shipping on most software is
55.00. AZ orders + 6% sales tax. Personal check- allow ten
(10) days to clear. Prices are subjecttochange.Weaccept
purchase orders.

TOLL-FREE ORDER LINE 1-800-421-3135
WAREHOUSE DATA PRODUCTS inquiry 352

2701 West Glendale Ave. . Phoenix, AZ 85051

THE DATA PAGES

HAVE YOU

Tried to find information about businesses or stores?

TRY "THE DATA PAGES"!!

NEED TO

Look up phone numbers or addresses for companies?

TRY "THE DATA PAGES"!!

LOOKING FOR

A new use for your personal computer?

TRY "THE DATA PAGES"!!

NEED TO

Find information about businesses in other cities?

TRY "THE DATA PAGES"!!

LOOKING FOR

Electronic advertising?

TRY "THE DATA PAGES"!!

SEARCH FOR INFORMATION

By Location, City, State, Catagory, Service, Product, Names, Etc.

TRY "THE DATA PAGES"!!

"THE DATA PAGES" is an information service provided by a Texas
based corporation. We offer a unique service to personal computer
owners and businesses throughout the U.S.

"THE DATA PAGES" a new information service that is growing
rapidly in the number of subscribers and business advertisers us-
ing the service. We are expanding into most major cities.

As an INTRODUCTORY offer we are selling twelve month subscrip-
tions at a reduced fee. The normal fee is $29.95 per year. NOW
you can subscribe for as little as $19.95 a year. Send a check or
money order now and save another $5,00. Your cost only $14.95.

"THE DATA PAGES" is inexpensive to join, even better it's inex-
pensive to use.

Every subscriber, as part of our SPECIAL, receives one hour of
free time per month. All hours above the free time are charged at
$3.60 per hour regardless of the speed of modem used, 300, 1200,
or 2400 BPS.

Try "THE DATA PAGES" you'll like how it works! You'll like the
information you get!

SEND a check or money order with the coupon below to take ad-
vantage of our special offer. We will then send you all the necessary
information to get started.

I wish to take advantage of the SPECIAL $14.95 .
send information at this time .

Name:

_. Just

Address:
City:

State: _
Phone

Zip Code .

a/c .

Amount enclosed

Make check or money order payable to:

LMW Enterprises, Inc.
14031 Quarles
San Antonio, Tx. 78247
Phone (512)494-0263

BOOK REVIEWS

Shafer's handling of the concept
of the scope of a variable is a
painless introduction to the subject

drawing programs, and the manipulation of some pre-
defined shapes. The reader is introduced to the Frame,
Paint, Fill. Erase, and Invert operations. The tools for sur-
prisingly complex graphics are now in hand.

Subsequent discussions cover string manipulations, the
types of numbers in Pascal (emphasizing reals and integers
but with at least a hint of the more specialized types that
are available), and procedures and functions. Shafer's han-
dling of the concept of the scope of a variable is one of
the most painless introductions to the topic I have seen.
Most of the space is devoted to the use of procedures,
with a summary of the similarities and differences between
them and functions.

Advanced Topics

The last 100 pages or so are devoted to topics that most
readers will need if they want to write programs of real
substance. There is no obvious dividing line in the book
at this point, but rather a subtle change in the impres-
sion it leaves. Many of the remaining topics are more
abstract and simply require closer study than the material
that has gone before.

A readable introduction to structured data types— arrays,
sets, and records— gets things under way. In keeping with
the orientation of the book, only one- and two-dimen-
sional arrays are discussed, using the typical examples of
lists and tables. Shafer writes about subrange data types
and enumerated user-defined types as well as sets and
the programming tools for manipulating them.

There is some danger that the reader will begin to suf-
fer from data-structure overload at this point. My best ad-
vice is to try and remember that you don't have to use
every single tool in every program.

The remainder of Pascal Primer treats matters that could
be difficult for the novice. The topics deserve a place in
the book, however; they can be important when writing
programs of any practical level of complexity. They include
the Event Manager, which helps handle keyboard and
mouse inputs to a running program; disk files (restricted
to numerical files here); dynamic data structures, used
when you lack a priori knowledge of the quantity of in-
formation with which you will deal; and advanced graphics
and sound techniques. The book ends with three sample
programs that pull together many of these techniques.

Useful and Readable

I think that Pascal Primer for the Macintosh continues the Waite
Group's track record of conveying useful information in

[continued)

70 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 192

~

THE PROFESSIONS

T'O fffiSFi

i

1-2-3

$319

Symphony

$439

dBase III

$369

FrameWork

$369

MultiMate

$219

^ Word
Perfect 4 -1

$209

Software

Word Processing Editors
FANCY FONT $139

FINALWORO $179

MICROSOFT WORD $219

MULTIMATE $219

MULTIMATE

ADVANTAGE $269

OFFICE WRITER/

SPELLER $239

PFS: WRITE $ 89

SAMNA WORD III $259

VOLKSWRITER

DELUXE $159

VOLKSWRITER

SCIENTIFIC
WORD PERFECT 4.1
WORDSTAR
WORDSTAR 2000
WORDSTAR 2000+
WORDSTAR PRO
XYWRITE II+

Database Systems

ALPHA DATA BASE

MANAGER II
CLIPPER
CLOUT V 2.0
CONDOR 111
CORNERSTONE
DBASE 111

KNOWLEDGEMAN2
PARADOX
PC FOCUS
PFS:FILE/PFS:

REPORT
POWERBASE
OUICKCODEIII
QUICKREPORT
R BASE 5000
REFLEX
REVELATION

Spreadsheets/
Integrated Packages

ELECTRIC DESK
ENABLE
FRAMEWORK II
JAZZ

LOTUS 1-2-3
MULTIPLAN
OPEN ACCESS
SMART SYSTEM
SPREADSHEET

AUDITOR
SUPERCALC 3
SYMPHONY

$179
$389
$139
$329
$279
$389
$329
$C«M
$1139

$169
$219
$159
$159
$359
$79
$629

Graphics
BPS BUSINESS

GRAPHICS
CHARTMASTER
CHARTSTAR
DIAGRAM MASTER
EXECUVISION
ENERGRAPHICS
FREELANCE
GEM DRAW
GRAPHWRITER

COMBO
IN-A-VISION
MS CHART -NEW
OVERHEAD

EXPRESS
PC DRAW
PC PAINTBRUSH
PFS: GRAPH
SIGN MASTER

Project Management
HARVARD TOTAL

PROJECT MANAGER
MICROSOFT

PROJECT-NEW
PROJECT SCHEDULER

NETWORK
SUPERPROJECT
TIMELINE 2.0

Desktop Environments

DESK ORGANIZER
GEM DESKTOP
SIDEKICK

Communications/
Productivity Tools

CROSSTALK

CROSSTALK MKIV

PROKEY

KEYWORKS

RELAY GOLD

REMOTE

SMARTERM

SMARTCOM II

SUPERKEY

Statistics
SPSS/PC
STATPAK-NWA
ST ATP AC-

WALONICK
SYSTAT

$279

$249

$339
$209
$289

$ 69
$ 39
$ 39

$ 99
$149
$ 89
$ 59
$Ca!!
$119
$C«II
$ 99
$55

$349
$419

Professional Development
LIGHTYEAR $319

THINK TANK $109

Languages/Utilities
CONCURRENT DOS
C86 C COMPILER
OR FORTRAN 77
FASTBACK

LATTICE C COMPILER
MARK WILLIAMS C
MICROSOFT C

COMPILER
MS BASIC COMPILER
MS FORTRAN
NORTON UTILITIES
QUICK BASIC
TURBO PASCAL
XENIX

Accounting

BPI

GREAT PLAINS
IUS EASYBUSINESS
ONE WRITE PLUS
OPEN SYSTEMS
PEACHTREE
REAL WORLD
STAR ACCOUNTING

PARTNER $249

STAR ACCOUNTING

PARTNER II $529

Hardware 1

Display Boards

AST PREVIEW $279

EVEREX EDGE $309
EVEREX GRAPHICS

EDGE $319

GENOA SPECTRUM $Call
HERCULES GRAPHICS

CARD $299
HERCULES COLOR

CARD $159
PARADISE MODULAR

GRAPHICS $275
PARADISE

MULTIDISPLAY CARD $285

SIGMA COLOR 400 $489

STB CHAUFFER $279
TECMAR GRAPHICS

MASTER $459

TSENG ULTRA PAK $429

TSENG ULTRA PAK-S $369

Multifunction Boards
AST ADVANTAGE $389

AST 6 PAK PLUS (84K) $229
AST 6 PAK PLUS (364K) $249
GOLD OUADBOARD (OK) $419
ORCHID BLOSSOM

(OK) $199

ORCHID BLOSSOM

(384KJ $249

ORCHID PC TURBO

(258K) $699

PERSYST TIME SPECTRUM

(OK) , $199

PERSYSTTIME SPECTRUM

(384K)
QUADBOARO (OK)
OUADBOARO (384K)
SILVER OUADBOARD

(OK)
TECMAR CAPTAIN

(OK)
TECMAR CAPTAIN

(384K)
TECMAR JR CAPTAIN

(128K)
TECMAR WAVE (64K)

Emulation Boards

AST 5251-11

AST 5251-12

ASTBSC

AST SNA

CXI 3278/9 Plus

IRMA

IRMALINE

Networks
AST PC NET
CORVUSNET
ORCHID PC NET
3COM

$249
$189
$219

$219

$189

$229

$289
$209

$599
$549
!W89
S599
$959
$799

$Call
$CaB

SCaii

$Cail

Mass Storage/Backup

EXCEL STREAM 60 TAPE

(INT) $899

IOMEGA BERNOULLI

BOX-NEW) $2445

IRWIN 310A 10MB TAPE

(EXT) $850

IRWIN 110D 10MB TAPE

(INT) $499

MAYNSTREAM 60MB TAPE

(INT) $1199

MOUNTAIN DRIVECARD

10MB $789

TALLGRASS $C*fl

TECMAR OIC-60AT TAPE

(INT) $1199

Monitors

AMOEK 310A $169
AMOEK 300/500 $249/349
AMDEK 600/710 $449/469

PRINCETON HX-12 $459
PRINCETON MAX-12E $179

PRINCETON SR-12 $579

PRINCETON HX-12E $559

PRINCETON HX-9 $529

TAXAN 122 AMBER $159
TAXAN 630/640 $489/539

Modems

AST REACH 1200 $389

HAYES 1200 $389

HAYES 1200B $349

HAYES 2400 $579

TRANSNET 1000 $299
VENTEL 1200

HALF CARD $369

WATSON $489

Printers/Plotters
BROTHER TWINWRITER $939

DIABLO $CaJI

EPSON FX-85 $369

EPSON FX-185 $499

EPSON LQ-1500 $999

HP 7475A $Call

JUKI 6300 $699

NEC ELF 350 $439

NEC 3550 $1139

OKIDATA193 $539

QUME SPRINT 1155 $1589

SWEET P 600 $839

Tl 855 $799

TOSHIBA P351 $1129

Input Devices

KEYTRONIC5151 $179

KOALA $109

MICROSOFT MOUSE $129
PC MOUSE W

PAINTBRUSH $129

Accessories
CURTIS SURGE

PROTECTORS
DATASHIELD BACKUP

POWER
GILTRONIX SWITCHES
MASTERPIECE PLUS
MICROFAZER INLINE

(64K;
TRIPPLITE BACKUP

POWER
258KRAMSET
8087 MATH CHIP

$C«II

$219

Helcules Mountain Quadboard

Graphics Card 1 Drivecard 10 I 384K

$299 $789 $219

Six Pak Plus I Smartmodem I Smartmodem
384K 1200B 2400

$249

$349

$579

free!

TERMS:

Checks— allow 14 days to clear. Credit processing— add 3%. COD orders— cash,
M.O or certified check— add $5.00. Shipping and handling UPS surface— add $3.00
per item (UPS Blue$8.00 per'item). NY State Residents— add applicable sales tax.
All prices subject to change.

LOWEST PRICE
GUARANTEE!!

We will match current

nationally advertised

prices on most products.

Call and compare.

1-800-221

In New York State call (718) 438-6057

II

Diskette

Library

Case

with your order

MON.-THURS. 9:00AM-8:00PM
SUN. & FRL9:00AM-4:00PM

Softline Corporation
P.O. Box 729, Brooklyn, NY. 11230
TELEX: 421047 ATLN Ul
FAX: 718-972-8346

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 71

How to Save Money

l l l l l l l l l IT

TTT

II I I Ml I

IBM PC SYSTEMS

| I M ■ ' " " M | | | | M | | | , I I < I I I I M I

Same System with
20 MB Hard Disk

$2085

Id separate

MAINSTREET
ENHANCED

pc $1965

with 10 MB Disk

360kb Tandon Floppy

10 MEG ADEPT Hard Disk

256K RAM

All Controllers, Cables, Manual

1 Year Warranty

Many Options Available

I I

MM I 1 IT

IBM PC/AT SYSTEMS!

II II I M I M I □ I M I ITTT T

MAINSTREET

ATplus

$4030

20MB System
Includes:

■ 1.2 MB Floppy

■ 360 KB Floppy

■ 512K RAM

■ 20 MB Hard Disk

■ Serial/Clock

■ All Cables, Controllers, Manual

Monitor sold separately

Same System
with 32 mb

$4241

MORE IBM PC SYSTEMS FROM MAINSTREET

• 256K RAM

• 360K Ri,hh

• 10 MEG

USURER PC

$2644

• M0K RAM

USURER PC+ •2i : i<w>

&Oi\Hi\ B 20MH(»HARD

vpC$U / U • ")Vip« Backup

• Tope Drive

• 135 Wait

• MUK RAM

• AS I 6 PAK

• 135 Wotl
Power

^Slot Saver

$2601

^PC 2/20

$2145

• 20 MB Hard Disk

• Pctsys! Video Combo

• 3 Slots AunLhlf

• 2-360K Floppies

Printers

EPSON FX-85 CALL

EPSON LQ-1 500 $929

EPSON FX-185 $499

EPSON LX-80 $229

TOSHIBA 1340 $569

TOSHIBA 351 $1099

TOSHIBA 1351 $999

TOSHIBA 341 $939

NEC E»L»F $449

CITIZEN MSP-10 $299

OKIDATA 182 $239

OKIDATA 192 $349

OKIDATA 193 $549

OKIDATA 84 $759

— — —

POV

I I I I I I I I I I I I I t | I I

ADEPT

DalaShifldATSOO . .
Bach up pawn BOOWi

DalaShicId XT300 . , .
DaldShiHd PC200 . . .
DaKtShifltl Al 500 . . .

$689

[Is

$;»69

$285
$559

SURGE
Protection

DaUiShk'lHSItlO $59

DftttSMtM SIS $49

Drtl*iShivtdS75 ISA

KiMTsiii-itim

M.tsii-ipti'i*' $95

Computer AccetworieH

I I 11

TO PLACE YOURORDER CALL

1-800-426-MAIN

r\ r\ r\

»f\

] U<W\

MAINSTREET

COMPUTER CORPORATION
HOURS: 9am to 6 pm CST M-F Sat 9-.1

OF NINE

$8

SE
64K-

DRAMS

256K- $<*£

DRAMS M'' 53

«087-2 - $160

comma

FAST 8086 Processor

640K RAM

20 MB Hard Disk

2 • 360kb Floppy

High Resolution Monitor

Basic

1 Year Warranty

20 MB
System

$2942

SHOCK.
MOUNTED
10 MB

For
Compaq

$475

COMPAQ, Portable $2689
$2466 With 20MB

COMPAQ 286

2omb $4664

56K, 360KB Floppy,
10MB Hard Disk

TTT

TL

Inquiry 201

ORDERING INFO: All Mail: 1025 Main Si.. Bastrop TX 78602.
We accept personal a\u\ corporate checks. No delay il driver's
license and expiration inducted. Shipping is Irec on prepaid orders
via UPS Ground. Air is extra. We accept VISA, MC. (Am F.xp.
and Diner's Club = 3% surcharge.) We double manufacturer's
warranty on .ill hardware. Software is not returnable. Allgoodsare
»«*• TELEX 5 106007038- MAINSTREET UQ B0286

Buy Mainstreet and Adept

m 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

' ' ' ' ■ ■ ' ' ' I I ITT

ADEPT PC

—

.mi 1 1 1 n 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

ADEPT at

$749 S $1975

DOV N

orih:

Same System

with 20MB

$1239

30 Day Trial /100% Credit
Towards IBM PC

ADEPT M
Personal
Computer

• 640KRAM

• 360Kb Floppy

• "Touch Type" Keyboard

• 1 Year Warranty
Runs IBM™ Software

Monitor sold separately

ADEPT" AT

80286 Microprocessor

1 Megabyte Motherboard

1.2 MEG Floppy Drive

Hard Disk Controller

"Touch Type AT"

Keyboard

Runs IBM PC, XT,

AT Software

8 Full-Size Expansion Slots

1 Year Warranty

Monitor sold si/p.u.iiely

Add 20MB Hard Disk
For Only $490

"Our #1 Seller"

Quick-Six Multifunction Board

• Serial Port • Clock/Calendar

• Parallel • RAM Disk Software

• 384K RAM • Print Spooler

For A Limited Time

24 Ho it

I ul W> tin

B >£ rd

Sen

1 fP L( )Ap
5 iIC S

Ik In i

MONO/GRAPHICS

BALANCE I

$229

• 720x348 Resolution

• Parallel

• Serial

• Runs 1-2-3

Balance II

$299

Mono/Color Graphics

M\!l

Sltl< il -4 IO-»

ft Of ■

r-

mt

%1 W

HIGH SPEED
TAPE BACK-UP

$739

20MB

Backs up 20 MB in

less than 10 minutes

60 MB

$899

Similar to TECMAR
QIC-60

ADEPT

TM

AT E«X»P BOARD

• 3MB RAM

• Serial Port

• Parallel Port

• For IBM or ADEPT AT

$289

HARD DISKS

by ADEPT
20MB

$490

m

• Half-Height

• Complete System

• Mounts Internally

• 1 Year Warranty

10 MB -$390
32MB -$695

For really FAST access, call our
hard drive specialist — 800-426-6246

10,20.32 MB . . . From$595
10 MB
Combination Systems

IIVKI) DRIVI

TAPE

PRICE

in Ml'.d
:o \n if

30 MM.

n MB?

20 MEG
60 MEG
m MEG

53185
$tt<J0
S1WV5
$1870

A perfect march! Colors and casing
to conform with your IBM or ADEPT
PC. In Rvoconvemeni models to suit
your space requirements. Add hard
drives in 10, 20, 32 or 40 megabytes.
Cartridge lane b.ickupiu 10,20 or 60
megabytes. Combine hard drive and
tape backup lor complete storage
solutions. All units come with power
. . cables, software and manual,

XTERNAL
STORAGE

10,20,32 MB. . From$0<>5
10 MB
Combination Systems

ll.\Knr>Ri\t' TAPE

price

10 MM.

:o mi <i

20 MM.

nuvM

10 MEG
20 MEG
W MEG
fiOMEG

i 1 1 1 i 1 1 1 1 u i i i i i n i i tt

800 426-6246

ORDERS
512 321-4406

Trchnkal Assistance

Mainsti wt Computer

1025 Main St.

Bastrop, TX 78602

Hours:
Mon-Fri: 9 am-6 pm

Te\*s Residents. Inquiries Saturday: 9 am- 3 pm

I I I I 1 I I I I I I l I I l " I

I I ii I i i I i I ii M I ii i M i ii ii M M ii I ii I I ITT

SOFT W ARE— Many titles available 800 426-6246
Lowest inquiry 201 Call for Latest Version and Price

Pricing On ^ . Borland Super key S35 Copy II PC S25

MuhimaiG $238 Nor! on Utilities $49
iii ii ii iiii i j i i.ii.il

Borland!

Examples

Inquiry 183

Real-Time Multitasking Executive

■ No royalties

■ Source code included

■ Fault free operation

■ Ideal for process control

■ Timing control provided

■ Low interrupt overhead

■ Inter-task messages

Options:

■ Resource Manager

■ Buffer Manager

■ Integer Math Library

■ Language Interfaces :

C Pascal

PL/M Fortran

■ DOS File Access :

CP/M-80
IBM PC DOS

AMX isTMof KADAKProducts Ltd.
CP/M-80 isTM ol DigitalResearchCorp.
IBM, PC DOS are TM of IBM Corp.

AMX

for 8080 $ 800

8086 950

6809 950

68000 1600

Manual (specify processor) 75

US

Jk KADAKProducts Ltd.

(604) 734-2796
Telex: 04-55670
206-1847 W. Broadway, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6J 1Y5

iflM

GANG PROGRAMMER,
SET PROGRAMMER,
A UNIVERSAL PROGRAMMER,

WoW

islniment Systems Division

^^

FEATURES LIKE THESE:
SUPPORTS ALL TECHNOLOGIES
UP TO 1 ME0A BYTE OF RAM
CENTRONIC PARALLEL PRINTER

, x 2 LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY
MUCH, MUCH MORE.

IGHEST PERFORMANCE/COST
ATIO AVAILABLE TODAY
THER MODELS AVAILABLE
RICES START AT $995
V ERASERS FROM $67
VAILABLE FROM STOCK

CALL NOW TO ORDER
(305) 994-3520

South Rogers Circle, Boca Raton, FL 33431
(305) 994*3520, Telex 4310073 MEVBTC

BOOK REVIEWS

highly readable form. It is pleasant to find a Macintosh
software book that deals with the same version of a prod-
uct that the consumer can actually buy.

I found only a few misprints, which seemed to be con-
fined to program listings. Some of the demonstration
routines will crash if run as listed; interpreting the resulting
Macintosh Pascal error messages is not too difficult and
can be considered part of the learning process. One error
that comes to mind is in the "Flying Circles" graphics pro-
gram on page 1 12; as it stands, a second constant (ymax)
must be declared in order to set the boundary of the draw-
ing area.

Shafer's style leans on frequent asides to the reader and
minor-league puns, and it does get a bit tiresome.

But these are minor matters. I recommend the book to
Macintosh Pascal beginners learning to write useful pro-
grams. Some ex-novices (especially those with BASIC ex-
perience) will be able to go straight from the Pascal Primer
to Apple's own Macintosh documentation, while others
may find a more traditional Pascal text a worthwhile in-
vestment.

Scott L. Norman (8 Don's Rd., Framingham, MA 01701) is a fre-
quent contributor to computer magazines.

SILICONNECTIONS:

COMING OF AGE IN THE ELECTRONIC ERA

Reviewed by William Barden Jr.

Forrest M. Mims III is one of the world's best-selling
electronics and computer authors. His Radio Shack
Engineer's Notebooks are down-to-earth guides for hardware
hackers on how to use integrated circuits. His column in
Computers and Electronics magazine, covering lasers, optics,
computers, and electronics, was the mainstay of that
magazine for years. Mims started his career in electronics
about the time of large-scale use of integrated circuits and
therefore has an excellent perspective about the era of
silicon chips and microcomputers.

Mims's new book Siliconnections: Coming of Age in the Elec-
tronic Era spans 1 5 years. Mims has some spellbinding
stories to tell that will be of great interest to computer
users, hardware hackers, and anyone else interested in
"high tech."

There's a story of how Mims helped found MITS, long
before Apple (at least in measurement of time in the
microcomputer era). With the Altair 8800. MITS became
the first successful microcomputer company. Those were
the days of iron men and silicon machines; it took a
dedicated computer hobbyist to build the system from a
kit and then program it in machine language. The Altair
8800 was sold at first in kit form, coming complete with
2 56 bytes of RAM (random-access read/write memory).
The Altair 8800 was incredibly successful and was the

[continued)

74 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 52

$

cr<^y

J?

9

A > /^ LOWEST PRICE S

fy/'IcUNO SURCHARGE
/-1 ON BANK CAR DS

SILICON SP€ClfllTI€S

&

4

¥£

PRINTERS

Anodex AltModels. . Save

Brother All Models Save

Cannon Loser Printer 52099

Citizen MSP- 10 $255

MSP-I5 or MSP- 20 $349

MSP-20 $319

MSP-25 $489

Datasouth All Printer Models . $awo

Diablo D-25 $549

635 ....$1079

Other Printer Models . Save

Epson All Printer Models $OWO

Juki 6000 $169

6100 $349

6300 $679

NEC 2010, 2015,2050 $629

3510,3550 $989

3515 ..$1009

3530 $935

8810,8830,8850 $1379

P2, P3 Save

Elf 360 $399

Elf 370 $389

Okidata All Printer Models Save

Panasonic 1091 $235

1092 ... $349

1093 $429

KXP3J51 . $409

Star Micronics

All Printer Models Save

Silver Reed

EXP400 Parallel $205

EXP500Parollelor Serial $279

EXP550 Parallel or Seriol $389

EXP770 Porotlel or Serial S699

TOSHIBA

PRINTERS

SPECIAL

1340 Parallel

$449

1340 Serial

$449

341 Parallel

$829

341 Serial & Parallel

$879

351 Serial & Parallel

$985

MONITORS

Amdex All Monitors .

NEC All Monitors

Princeton Graphics .

Taxan All Models

Zenith All Models .

. Save
. Save
. Save
. Save
Save

HARDWARE

BOARDS

AST Advantage 89

Six Pack Plus $219

Everex Boards *o

Hercules Color Card 9S

Graphic Card 99

Intel

Above Boards &«

Paradise Modular Graphic 06-1 ■ $29

Five Pak $119

Ouadram

Quadlink $325

Tec Mar Graphics Master $445

Captain No Memory $155

COMPUTERS

CompaqAll Models Save

Zenith

Z-158 All Models Save

2-138 All Models Save

Z-148 All Models Save

Z-171 Save

Z-200 Save

VIDEO TERMINALS

AftOS Smart III $599

IBM 3161 & 3163 Series Save

Qume OVT Green 101 $299

QVT Amber 101 $314

Wyse30 $299

50 $419

75 $559

Wyse 85 $579

Wyse 350 $859

Zenith Z-22 $455

Z-29 $559

Z-49 Save

DISK DRIVES

AlphaOmega Turbo 10 $529

Turbo 20 $529

Turbo 30 $729

Haba

Macintosh BOOK $409

Iomega

BernoulliBaxesforlBM Save

Bernoulli Boxes for Macintosh Save

Paradise Macintosh Hord Disk Save

MODEMS

AT&T

4000 Externol $309

Anchor Automation

Anchor Express $229

Mark XII $229

Hayes Smartmodem 300 Baud Save

Smortmodem 1200 Baud Save

Smortmodem 1200B(IBM) Save

Smortmodem 2400 Baud Save

Micromodem ME (Apple) Save

Prometheus All Models Save

US Robotics Courier 2400 $389

Password 1200 $189

Microlink 2400 $389

KEYBOARDS

Keytronics 5151 $ 1 59

515! Jr. $179

Other Models Save

DISKETTES

Maxell MD-2 Plaslir. Box (Qty 100)
MD-20 Plastic Box (Qty 100)

Sony MD/2 (Qty lOO)

PLOTTERS

Enter Sweet-P600.
Epson Hi-BO

SOFTWARE

IBM PC and 100% Compatibles

WORD PROCESSORS

Lightening $52

Leading Edge Word Processor $50

Leading Edge W/P with Spell & Mail $ 1 05

Microsoft Word 2.01 $229

Multimale 3.3 $206

PFS-Write $78

Wordstar w/Tutor $169

Wordstar Pro Pack $239

MONEY MANAGEMENT

Dollars & Sense w/Forcost $95

Tobios Managing Your Money ... $95

Gem Collection $115

Gem Desktop $29

Gem Draw $ave

Word Perfect (Ver.4.1). . $199

Wordstar 2000 $239

Wordstar 2000 Plus . . .$285

GRAPHICS

Chartmoster $206

PC Paintbrush $62

Turbo Grophix Tool Box $28

Diagram Master 190

Dr. Halo $55

Energraphics $165

Energrophics w Plotter Option $214

Microsoft Chart Save

PC Draw $203

PC Draw Lighl Pen . $ 1 04

PC Paint w Mouse $1 23

PC Mouse w Paintbrush $ 1 07

PFS Graph $78

Printmoster $30

Signmoster $135

LANGUAGES

C Compiler (Microsoft) $235

Fortran Compiler (Microsoft) S209

Macro Assembler , $89

Pascal Compiler (Microsoft) $178

Turbo Pascal 3.0 $35

Lattice C Compiler $249

RunC Interpreter $85

Quick Basic $59

Turbo Tool Box $28

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Horvard Totol Project Manager $269

Microsoft Project Save

Super Project $182

Timeline 2.0 $249

COMMUNICATIONS

CompuServe Starter Kit '519

Crosstalk XVI $94

PFS Access $78

Remote $94

INTEGRATIVE SOFTWARE

Enable 1.1 $329

Framework II Save

Smort Software System $459

Symphony Save

SPREADSHEETS

Lotus 1-2-3 Save

Mulliplan $114

Spreadsheet Auditor 2.0 ... $83

| Supercalc3(Ver.2.1). . $AVE |
DATA BASE MANAGEMENT

Cornerstone $255

dBase II Save

dBase 111 Save

Nutshell $50

PFS:File " $78

PFS:Report $70

Quickcode $139

QuickReport $ 1 39

Extended Report Writer $80

Think Tank $93

Clipper $355

Knowledgeman II $299

Knowledgemon Upgrade Kit. .$152
Power base

(New Ver. Reb. 320K) $205
Reflex $52

UTILITIES

1 DIR $48

Copy li PC 519

Norton Utilities 3.1 $49

Sidekick $28

Sidekick (Unprotected) $43 . ^^ „„„„ J

sideways $31 | R:Base 5000. $335/

Superkey $35

Printworks $36

Sidekick -Superkey (Bundle) $65

TRAINING

Flight Simulator $30

Typing Instructor $29

Typing Tutor III $29

cB ^B VISA

Inquiry 292 for MS-DOS Products. Inquiry 293 for all others.

Prices reflect 3% to 5% cash discount. Product shipped in factory cartons with manufacturer's warranty. Please odd $10.00 per order
for UPS shipping. Prices & availability subject to change without notice. Send cashier's check or money order. . . all other checks will'deloy
shipping two weeks.

•sra

4rW

r#

V

Inquiry 264

So you can't get
Toshiba Printer
Accessories, Bunkie?

Any time (24 hours) grab your VISA or MasterCard

ffl 800/854-0561 ffi

IN CALIFORNIA CALL 800/432-7257 EXT 837

Font Cartridges for P351& P341

T/FC011 $69

Bold Face Letter Gothic

T/FC012S69

Elite Italic Gothic 15

T/FC013 $69

Greek/Math I a v-vo-< a « t > = 4 a

APLI ')<5 = >]VA^, + ,/ai
T/FC014S69

Greek/Math II ! •• *$%& abtae£z
SciPil •' + — *{ \ \ ' LJ «<s*=

T/FC015S69

Orator! Orator2

T/FC01B $69
Ou4l-Jn«1 Sctlpt

T/FC017S69

Theme Litalic
T/FC018 $69
Bttaltcl OCR-B

Ribbon for 300 & 1300 series

t/rooi $12

Ribbon for3-in-0ne Printers
Font Disks for P351 & P1351

G/FD051 $50

Sci 4, Sci 5, Sci 124, Sci 125

G/F0052 $25

Miniset

G/FD053S30

Maxiset

T/FD016$69

T Origin 2, L Gothic 2, B Italic 1,

Gothic 15, E Italic 1

T/FD011 $49

T Origin 2, L Gothic 2, B Italic 1

T/FD014 $49

Orator 1, Orator 2, Outline 1

T/FD015549

Theme, Script, L Italic

T/F0013 $69

Greek/Math 1, Greek Math II, APL 1, Sci Pi 1

T/FD021449

Micro 1 , Italic 1 , Italic 2

T/FD031 $35

Courier, Graph 10, Elite, Graph 12
F/FD001 $95

Micro 1, Copper 1, Italic 1, Italic 2,
Zip 1, Micro 20, Science 1

F/FD002 $95

Boss 1, Gothic 1, C Italic 1, G Italic 1,
Fathead 1, Gothic 15, Greek 1

F/FD003$95

Courier 1, L Gothic 1, Orator 1, Script 1,
Italic 17, Symbol 12, Hebrew 1

F/FD004 $95

Roman 1, Elite Italic, OCR-A, OCR-B,
Prestige Pica, Greek 2, Micro 15

PRINTER Shipping and handling will be added to each order. 6% sales

m nnt - n nnnim tax added to California orders. Send for free catalog of

M CCESSORIES accessories, manuals, printer enclosures and much more.

Direct inc./ro. box W6O8-347, irvine, ca 92713/714-832-7312

New OEM SBC

Base model

L Only $

250.

5" x 11"

OEM Discounls Available

Includes:

• 6 MHz Z80* Processor
•64KDRAM

• Provision for 128K of EPROM

or E 2 PROM

• 3 Parallel Ports

• Boot PROM to boot off EPROM,
floppy disk or hard disk

• Full Z80 Interrupt Support
•I/O Expansion via either Peripheral

Expansion Bus or iSBX " connector

Optional features to choose from:

• Floppy Disk Controller 8", 5.25" and 3.5" • ST-506
Winchester Hard Disk Controller • 128K or 256K DRAM

• Monochrome or Color CRT Video Controller (Alpha-
numerics and Graphics) • Up to 4 additional Serial Ports

• Up to 2 additional parallel ports with counter-timers

• Buffered Peripheral Expansion Interface • 50 or 60 Hz
N operation • Time-of Day Clock with Battery Back-up

The Megatel Quark '/400 is a single boardcomputer which allows
OEM designers the flexibility of choosing only the features required.
Development and system software include a fully configured CPM' 2.2
operating system — BASIC and C Al I Megatel software includes utilities,
drivers and source code. To order or enquire, call us today
Megatel Computer Technologies 150 Turbine Drive, Weston, Ontario
M9L 2S2 (416) 745-7214 U.S. Address 1051 Clinton St.. Buffalo, NY. 14206
Distributors: NCS Electronics — Varese. Italy • SES Electronics — Nordlingen,
Germany • Perdix Microtronics — Biggin Hill, U.K. • Microcomputing -
Ghent, Belgium.

K MfGCOLTD ZSOisoregiSiereatroaem
is aregssietedlfademarkolirilellnc.

■ megatel

alZdoginc CP Mcsotegisn

BOOK REVIEWS

Siliconnections is a potpourri
of stories, anecdotes, and history
of the young semiconductor industry.

basis for the microcomputer industry. It spawned a host
of imitators: Sphere, IMSAI. Southwest Technologies, and
Apple. This is the true story of the birth of the microcom-
puter industry from an insider's point of view that moves
the birthplace of the infant industry from Silicon Valley
to Silicon Valley Southwest— Albuquerque.

Then there's the story of Mims versus Bell Laboratories,
a David-and-Goliath scenario that pits an independent in-
ventor of an electronics device against the power of Bell
Labs. Mims raises several questions. Do large companies
steal ideas? Does the "little guy" have any recourse if it
happens? As it goes according to the author, Mims had
invented an infrared-emitting diode device that acted as
both a laser emitter and detector. In a proposal to Bell
Labs, he described the device and suggested that Bell
might like to use the invention in a fiber-optics two-way
communications link. Bell rejected the proposal, saying
that it "has negligible value to Bell Labs." However, five
years later Mims learned that Bell Labs had developed
a new device that doubled as detector and light source,
"greatly simplifying the problem of coupling separate
detector and transmitter devices to the same end of a hair-
thin fiber." A legal battle ensued.

Lasers and Howard Hughes

There's intrigue in this book, too. In 1975 Mims was con-
tacted by the National Enquirer for a feature article on lasers.
In the course of the preliminary discussion, Mims casual-
ly verified that laser devices could indeed be used to in-
tercept conversations in closed rooms by bouncing the
beam off the window panes. Conversations in the room
would make the panes vibrate, and this vibration could
be used to modulate the returning beam. The Enquirer staff
was excited because they had been trying to get copy on
Howard Hughes, even offering as much as $100,000 for
a full-face photo of the billionaire. Could Mims make such
a device they could use? The resulting story is an in-
teresting insight into the operations of the Enquirer and
an individual's right to privacy.

Siliconnections is a fascinating look into the world of elec-
tronics, Silicon Valley dealings and intrigue, computer com-
panies, computer publishing, and military laser experi-
ments. It's a potpourri of stories, anecdotes, and history
of the young semiconductor industry from one who was
there at its birth and matured in the era. ■

William Barden Jr. (POB 3568, Mission Wiejo, CA 92692) has
written more than 30 books about small computers and software
projects.

76 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 216

. \ \ \ \ \ \

■

-

the Hard-nosed" Relational

Database

\ \

\

\

\

\ \

the Database + Integrated Accounting

\

\

\

, \ "
\ \

TAS"

DBASE

IN

RBASE
5000

Multi-User

$100

No

$1400

Data Dictionary

Yes

No

Yes

' [ -,'"\

Procedural Language

Yes

Yes

Yes

Compiler

Yes

No

Yes

Records Per File

Unlimited

Unlimited

Unlimited

Files Open

16

10

40

Fields Per File

Unlimited

128

400

File Size

Unlimited

Unlimited

Unlimited

Record Size

10,254

4,000

1,530

Field Size

254

254

1,530

Prices

$199

$696

$700

If You Liked DBase IH,
You'll Flip Over TAS™

Hard-nosed business owners have been
asking forthe power of DBase III™
and RBase 5000™ but without the high
price. That's why Business Tools, Inc. \
created TAS™

Compare TAS with DBase III and RBase
5000. You'll see why we think TAS is the
best "Hard-nosed" value around. TAS \
includes a data dictionary. TAS includes a
true procedural language. TAS includes a
run-time compiler. Plus TAS can be
upgraded to multi-user for $ 100, \ \

TAS lets you develop your own professional menu-driven
business applications. And notjust simple ones either. TAS
applications can hold up to 17 million records. And because
TAS compiles them, they run fast. \ \ \ \

Get TAS Accounting
Software for $349

But why stop with just a database? For just $349, you m
get TAS Relational Database/Language plus General Ledger, ■
Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable. And for $499 J
you get all the above plus Inventory, Sales Order Entry,, -
Purchase Order Entry, and Payroll, \ \ ■ ^„ r _ _ -

Source code is included FREE! So you can even modify the f De scntievourcomp^ er
accounting to fit your business.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \

■■ \
BUSINESS
TOOLS

\ \

And TAS is no new comer. TAS was \
written by Phil Mickelson, the same
"Hard-nosed" business person who
created The Sensible Solution™ (relational
database) in 1982. \ \ \

TAS comes with a 30 day money back
guarantee (less handling fee of $15 Level
],$B0 Level 2> $45 Level 3 and $10 Mufti- \
User). TAS is available forthe IBM
PC/XT/ATT M Compaq™ AT&T 6300™ Tandy
1000, 1200, 2000™ and most MS-DOS™ \
CP/M™ and MP/M™ systems. Multi-user, \
and LAN versions also available. \

Call Today 1-8Q0-&4&-&258

Ask for operator 11

Call our Toll-Free Hotline. Use your VISA or MasterCard
to order today. Qutside Washington call 1-800-648-6258.
\X/ashihgtoh residents call 1-206-644-201 5>
Dealer Inquiries Welcome.

jystenv

\

INC.

\

4038-B 128th Ave. SE
Suite 266
Bellevue,WA?800$

Inquiry v 50

The following are registered trademarks of thesecom-
pames: TAS. Accounting Solution, Business Tools Inc;

' R Base 5000, Microrrm Inc; DBase I II, AshtonTate Inc ;CP/M'
and MP/M, Digital Research Inc; IBM' PC/XT/AT;. Inter-

i national. Business Machines Corp;. Compaq, Compaq
Computer Corp; AT&T 6300, AT&T Information Systems Inc; 1
Tandy 1000; 1200, 2000, Tandy Corp; MS-DOS, Microsoft

. Corp; The Sensible Solution trademark rights are claimed
by O'Hanlon Computer Systems Inc? ■..

©Copyright 1^85 Business Tools lnc.\ \

\

\ \ \

\

Business

Quantity-

TA SDatabaselLany^ - _ y%m

upgrade-^ 00

Che*

Total Enclosed; ^

Pa V menV.D^AD^^ n , 1unds onW.)
(All amounts are
Credit Card Ex^tion Oatev

Card Number-.

Name on

card - -

l^ltV 98006

Signature'-

1\
1

r x

t\

1,

1

1

1

1

\

EVENT QUEUE

February 1986

Hands-on UNIX for Pro-
grammers; C Programming
Workshop, City University.
Bellevue, Washington. Spe-
cialized Systems Consultants
Inc.. POB 55 549, Seattle,
WA 98155, (206) 367-8649.
February

Local Area Networks;
The Information Center;
Financial Analysis and
Problem Solving Using
Lotus 1-2-3, various sites
throughout the U.S. Data-
Tech Institute, Lakeview
Plaza. POB 2429, Clifton. NJ
07015, (201) 478-5400.
February

Personal Computer
Seminars, New York. NY.
Personal Computer Educa-
tion, Training, and Con-
sulting. 4 50 Seventh Ave..
New York. NY 10123, (212)
736-5870. February

C Programming; UNIX;
Microcomputer Systems in
Government, various sites
throughout the U.S. Con-
ference Manager. U.S. Pro-
fessional Development In-
stitute. 1620 Elton Rd.,
Silver Spring. MD 20903,
(301) 445-4400.
February-March

Dial-Up Communications:
Solving Your Applications
Puzzles, various sites
throughout the U.S. Micro-
corn. 1400A Providence
Highway, Norwood, MA
02062, (617) 762-9310.
February-Mar cfi

Digital Control Systems;
Digital Image Processing;
Automated Recognition
Systems, various sites
throughout the U.S. and
Canada. Integrated Com-
puter Systems. 6305

Arizona Place. POB 4 5405,
Los Angeles. CA 9004 5,
(213) 417-8888.
February-March

Computer Related
Seminars for Profes-
sional Development,

Worcester and Boston, MA.
area. Kathy Shaw. Office of
Continuing Education. Hig-
gins House. Worcester Poly-
technic Institute. Worcester.
MA 01609, (617) 793-5517.
February- April

Symphony Seminars,

various sites throughout the
U.S. Automated Digital Of-
fices, 4 555 MacArthur Blvd..
Washington. DC 20007,
(202) 337-1393.
February- April

Voice and Data Communi-
cations Courses, various
sites throughout the U.S.
Datapro Research Corp.,
1805 Underwood Blvd..
Delran, NI 0807 5, (800)
328-2776. February- April

Microcomputer and Soft-
ware Seminars from Digi-
tal Consulting Associates
Inc., various sites through-
out the U.S. and Toronto,
Ontario. Canada. Software
Institute of America Inc.. 8
Windsor St., Andover, MA
01810, (617) 470-3880.
February-May

UNIX Public Training
Seminars, Edison. NJ.
Cynthia Capria, Auxton
Computer Enterprises Inc.
(AUXCO), 2 Kilmer Rd..
Edison, Nj 08817, (201)
572-507 5. February-)une

UniForum 1986, Anaheim,
CA. UniForum 1986, 2400
East Devon Ave.. Suite 205,
Des Plaines. IL 60018, (312)
299-3 131, or /usr/group,
4655 Old Ironsides Dr.,
Suite 200, Santa Clara. CA
95054, (408) 986-8840.
February 4-7

Personal Computer Net-
works, Milwaukee. WI.
Peter Tocups. University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 929
North Sixth St., Milwaukee,
Wl 53203, (414) 224-3952.
February 5-7

Fifteenth Annual North-
west Council for Com-
puters in Education Con-
ference, Seattle. WA. Sue
Collins, S.P.I. , NCCE. Old
Capitol Building, Olympia.
WA 98504. February 6-8

The Commodore Show II,

San Francisco. CA. West
Coast Commodore Associa-
tion, POB 210638, San Fran-
cisco, CA 94121, (415)
982-1040. February 8-9

The Role of the Computer
in Education VI. Arlington
Heights, IL. Rick Nelson,
Micro-Ideas. 2701 Central
Rd.. Glen view. IL 6002 5,
(312) 998-5065.
February 12-14

1986 North American
Computer Othello Cham-
pionship. California State
University, Northridge.
North American Computer
Othello Championship,
CSUN Computer Science As-
sociation, School of Engi-
neering. Box 31, 1 8 1 1 1

IF YOU WANT your organization's public activities listed in BYTE's Event
Queue, we need to know about them at least four months in advance. Send
information about computer conferences, seminars, workshops, and courses
to BYTE, Event Queue. POB 372, Hancock. NH 03449.

Nordhoff St. Northridge, CA
91330, (213) 852-5096.
February 15-16

Desktop Computers in
Engineering and Architec-
ture, Austin. TX. DCEA
Conference. CLE Program.
University of Texas Law
School, 727 East 26th St.,
Austin, TX 78705.
February 16-19

Ninth Annual Personal
Computer Forum-The PC
Marketplace; Exploiting
the Standards, Phoenix,
AZ. Release 1 .0, Ziff-Davis
Publishing Co., One Park
Ave., New York, NY 10016,
(212) 503-5500.
February 16-19

Vision Guidance for
Industrial Robots. Dear-
born. MI. Joanne Rogers.
Special Programs Division.
Society of Manufacturing
Engineers, One SME Dr.,
POB 930, Dearborn. Ml
48121, (313) 271-1500,
ext. 399. February 18-20

AI and Expert Systems;
Concepts and Workshop,

Princeton. NJ. Sperry Corp..
POB 2191, Princeton. NI
08540, (800) 222-0966; in
New Jersey. (201) 329-3899.
February 19-20

AutoCADCon, Rosemont. IL.
Cad Design Systems Inc.,
1305 Remington Rd., Suite
D. Schaumburg. IL 60195,
(312) 882-0114.
February 20-21

Fifth International Hobby
Computer Club Fair. Venlo.
The Netherlands. I. Peeters.
Molenstraat 8, 5993 ZB
Maasbree. The Netherlands;
telephone; 4765-1693.
February 22 ■

78 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

zhlg|^M»]:IMcMakifrlJ!l3l

How do you suppose most manufacturers of personal computer
products get started?

They go to the Orient . . .taking either their designs or simply their
ideas to one or more of the major electronics manufacturing
concerns, getting bids for making these devices under contract to
the creators. Multifunction Cards, Video Cards, Disk Controllers,
Modems and I/O Boards all begin their life in this way.
This relationship between the manufacturing capabilities of the East
and the design and marketing talents of the U.S. has resulted in the
incredible selection of enhancement products for the IBM and
Apple computer markets-
Well, with 100,000 members and growing strong, The Network
sent its buyers east to visit some of these manufacturing

concerns to check out the feasabihty of directly importing these
products in the necessary volumes to save our members money!
What they came back with was astounding.

Now, we always figured that there were some pretty substantial
markups as these boards came into the country and got fancy boxes
and marketing promotions under any one of a number of well
known brand names in the peripheral add-on markets but we bad
no idea they were so large!

To prove our point, consider what they brought back. Each board is
constructed to the same precise specifications, on exactly the same
machinery as their name-brand duplicates. The difference? As a
Network member *, you pay only 8% over our unusually low
wholesale price.,, and you get our full! year warranty!

Hercules™ Smarter
Brother

A Monochrome Graphics Card with
Printer Port... 100% compatible

with Hercules™ product.

Wholesale

$90.00

IBM Color Card

100% compatible with the

IBM offering. The wholesale price?

A mere

$69.00*

Graphics Printer
Interface

If all you want is a printer, this is the
card for you. Supports all text and
graphics printer features.

Wholesale price.

$29.00*

The "9" Pack Plus™

Multifunction like the AST™ "6" Pack™
...up to 384Kb of expansion memory, 1
serial, 1 parallel, and 1 game port, a
clock/calendar and 3 software
packages
- . standard.

The I/O Double Plus™

If you don't need memory— just
ports, identical I/O board to the
AST™ I/O +™ with 2 serial, (1 standard)
1 parallel, 1 game port and clock/
calendar with software.

Wholesale price?§

$69.00

WithOK .."

$89.00

Wholesale

512 K Memory

The least expensive way to add
memory to your current system.
With K installed.

Wholesale priced at only . . .

.$69.00*

™Stx Pack, I/O Plus and AST are all registered trademarks of AST Research Inc. Hercules is a registered trademark of Hercules Computer Technology Inc.

*PC NETWORK Members pay just 8% above this wholesale price, plus shipping.

AH prices reflect a 3% cash discount. Minimum shipping $2.50 per order, international orders
cantor shipping & handling charges. Personal checks: please allow 10 working days to clear.

ANTAGEH!

CALL TOLL-FREE 1-800-621-SAVES^^ get the network a

Inquiry 2 51

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 79

NETWORK

BUY HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE AT WHOLESALE +8%,
AND GET 14-30 DAY SOFTWARE RENTALS'...

Listed below are just a few of the over 30,000 products available at our EVERYDAY LOW PRICES!
The Network carries products for Apple, IBM, CP/M and most other popular computer families.

GAMES & EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE FOR YOUR APPLE II & MACINTOSH

(Please add $1 shipping and handling for each title ordered from below.)

Miles Computing Mac Atlack-Mac Only
Palattr Mac Type-Mac Only
Penguin Graphics Magician
Pen guin Pensaleor Xyphus
Penguin Transylvama-MacOnly
Professional Software Trivia Fever
PryoritySof Iware Forbidden Quest
Scarborough Master Type
Scarborough Run tar the Money
Simon & Schuster Typing Tutor III
Sir-Tech Wizardry
Sir-TechKn/gM olDiamonds
Sir-Tech Rescue Raiders
Sublogic Night Mission Pmbat)
Sublogic Flight Simulator II
►Spinnaker Alphabet Zoo. FaceMaker,
Kinder Comp. Hey Diddle Diddle.
Rhymes & Riddles. Story Machine
►Spinnaker The Most Amazing Thing
►Spinnaker Delia Drawing
T/Maker Click Art-Mac Only
Warner Desk Organizer
V\6ex.FunPack-Mac Only
Videx Mac Checkers & Reversal
Virtual Combinatics Micro Cookbook

BUSINESS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR APPLE II & MACINTOSH

(Please add S2.50 shipping and handling for each title orderedf rom below.)

ArraysHomeAccounfan'-MacOnfy

$65.00*

Ax Ion Art Portfolio & CardShoppe

31.00*

Bluechip Baron/Millionaire/ Tycoon

26.00*

Broderbund Loadnmner

19.75"

Brodeibund Choplttler

19.00*

Broderbund Print Shop

28.75"

Brodeibund Dazzle Draw

31.97"

CBS Masteiing the GRE

53.50*

CBS Murder by the Dozen

20.97*

CBS Goren Bridge Made Easy

45.00*

Counterpoint The News Room

26.97*

Davidson Speed Reader II

37.97-

Davidson Math Blaster

29.97-

Davidson Word Attack!

29.97*

1st Byte Smooth Talker-MacOnly

47.00"

Hayden DaVtnci-House/lnteriOrslLandscapes

24.75*

Hayden Sargon III

25.75*

Infocom Deadline or Suspended

24.00"

Infocom Enchanter, Planellall

20.00'

Cutthroats. Witness or Zorkl

Infocom Hilchiker's GuideorSeaslalker

20.00'

Infocom Suspect. Sorcerer or Infidel

22.00"

MocomZorkllorlll

22.00'

Layered FrontDesk-MacOnly

65.00-

Mirage Concepts Trivia

11.00-

►Apple Apple Works

Borland International Turbo Pascal

BPI GL APAR. PR. or INV

Broderbund Bank Street Writer.

Central Point Copyll Plus or Copy IIMac

Funk Software Sideways

Funsoft Macasm

Haba Habadex

Haba Quartet

Harvard Mac Manager
►Human Edge Mind Prober
►Human Edge SalesEdge

Human Edge Communication Edge
►Living VideotirXt Thtnk-Thank-Mic Top'

Main Street Fiter-MacOnlv

M E C A ManagmgyourMoney

5t60.00" UMiclbsoft Word tot Macintosh .

30.00" ►Mieroso ftfi/e lor Macinto sh

205.00* >NHaoso1\MultipiantorMaOn!osh
40.00* tA\ir6st>fiBasictor.Macintosh
20.00* MicrosoHC hart far'Macinlosh
34.00* Monogram Dollars & Sense lor Applellc
60.00* Monogram Do//ars & Sense for Macintosh
40.00* OdestaHe/ix/orMac/nlosn Reg s 512K
97.00* Provue Overvue-Mac Only
29.95* Sensible Software Sensible Speller IV
24.00* Sottcfafl FancyFonls

1 10.00* Soflech Microsystems UCSDPascal
98.00* Software Arts TKSolver'.torMac

Software Publishing PFS File. Write, or Graph
67.00* StonewareDBMaslsr MacTool ,

105.50* Telos Filevisionl orMac

$23.00*
23.50'
28.97*
20.00'
20.00"
19,00*
21.00*
26.50'
26.00'
28.25*
26.97*
18.97'
18.97'
20.00'
27.25-
15.97-

20.77-
24.97-
25.00-
65.00*
19.77-
25.17*
21.00*

$102.00"
102.00"
102.00"
79.00*
66.00*
55.00-
70.00'
200.00*
135.00*
67.50"
125.00'
140.00*
134.00*
68.00*
95.00*
87.50*

HARDWARE FOR YOUR APPL E // & MACINTOSH

(Please add shipping and handling charges found in italics next to price.)

DISK DRIVES

Alps AP- 100 A Dual Apple Drives in

One Case
Apple MAC 400KB External Drive
Corvus5 SMBHardDnve
lOmega Macnoulii 5MG Removable

Drive tor Macintosh
MicroSciA? 143KBDrive

J usllike Apples Own
Micro SciFloppyController
►Paradise Mac 10MB Hard Owe

Subsystem
►Paradise Mac 20MB Hard Dnve

Subsystem
► PC Network 140KExtemalDnve

forApplellc
Rana EMel 163K Drive
Tecmar 5MB Removable Drive foi MAC
Tecmar 10MB MAC Dnve
Tecmar 5M8 MAC Drive Upgrade

Wholesale
$309.00' (7001

349.95* (7.50)

939.00* (20.28)

1,250.00* (27 00)

Wholesale
$125.0O , (2.50)

174.45' (3.50)
276.00' (6 00)

95.00' (2 50)

225.00' (500)

999.00- (21 58)

999.00- (21.58)

1.235.00- (26 68)

BOARDS AND BUFFERS

ALSZ-eng/ne $115.00* (2 50)

AST Mulli 1/0-2 senal'Clock 155.00* (2 50)

Microsoft Premium Soltcardlle 243.67" (2 50)

Microtek Dumpling/GX 55.00' (2 50)

Orange Micro Grappler i 66.00' (2 50)

Orange Micro Serial Grappler 66.00' (2 50)

PC Network Z80Card 35.00' (2.50)

Quadram AP/C/G Graphics Interface 62.00' (2 50)

Quadram eRAM-80 88.00' (250)

Quadram Multicore-1 Parallel/ I Serial/ 140.00' (2.50)

Clock Expandable lo 256K

Thunderware Thunderclock 104.00' (2 50)

Hayes Mtcromodem llew/Smartcom
Novation Apple Cat//
Prometheus 1200 A

Low Cost 1200 Baud Internal Modem (or Apple II
Prometheus Promodem 1200- 299.00' (600)

w/MacPack
Zoom Zoom/ Modem lie 90.00" (2 50)

Micromodem Compatible-Free Dow Jones

ACCESSORIES

Apple Macintosh Carrying Case
Apple Macintosh Security Kit
Apple Macintosh Numeric Keypad
Hayes Mach //( Joystick

w/Fire Button for lie
Kensington Dust Cover tor MAC

orimagewriier
Kensington Starter Pack
Kensington Surge Protector
Kensington System Saver Fan
►Koala MacVision
Koala Koalapad Touch Tablet
M&R Sup-R-ModRF Modulation
PC Network Cooling Fan with Surge

Protector & Dual Outlets
PC Network SS/DD Diskettes (Box of 10)
PC Network Macintosh Diskettes

Includes Free Flip & File Case
These Diskettes are Guaranteed tor Life! No Generics!
Sony MAC Diskettes (Boxol 10) 19.00' (1 50)

S69.00*

(149)

29.00-

(1 50)

69.00'

(250)

31.00*

(150)

8.25"

(150)

54.00'

(3.00)

33.47*

(2 50)

56.97'

(150)

158.00*

(3 00)

78.00*

(150)

44.00*

(150)

25.00'

(250)

7.95*

(100)

15.95'

(150)

GAMES & EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE FOR YOUR IBM

(Please add $1 shipping and handling for each title ordered from below.)

Wholesale

ATI /nJro fo PC DOS Vb/(&» $23.00*

ATI/nlrofo8/*SfC 23.00*

Btuebush Chess (Your Toughest Opponent) 34.00*

Bluechip Millionaire/Oil Baron or Tycoon 28.25*

Broderbund Lode Runner 19.75'

CBS Goren-Bridge Made Easy 40.00*

CBS Mastering the SAT 50.00"

CDEX Training lor Word Star 37.25'

Comprehensive Intro lo Personal Computing 32.00'

Davidson Math Blaster. Word Attack! 26.50'

Davidson Speed Reader II 36.50'

Hayden Sargon III 25.75*

Individual ProtessorDOS 32.50*

Individual The Instructor 24.50*

► InfocomZorfc lor Witness 20.00*

► Infocom Deadline, or Suspended
Microsoft Flight Simulator

Mouse Systems PC Pa inl-Turn your PC

into A Color Macintosh!
Scarborough Mastertype
Sierra On-Line King's Quest II
Sierra On-Line Crossfire
SpectrumHolobyte GATO
►Spinnaker Alphabet Zoo. Kinder Comp.

Story Machine. FaceMaker. Hey Diddle. Diddle.

Rhymes & Riddles
►SpinnakerDe/la Drawing

► Spinnaker Most Amazing Thing
S ubtogic Night Mission Pinball
Virtual Combinatics Micro Cookbook

Wholesale
$24.00*

26.50*
27.00*
18.00*
18.00*
15.97-

24.97*
20.77*
20.00*
21.00-

BUSINESS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR IBM

(Please add $2.50 shipping and handling (or eachtrtJe ordered from below.)

►AshtonTate DBase II , '.

►AshtonTate Framework II

Borland TurboPascal

Boiland Side Kick (Protected)

Borland Superkey

BP\G/L.A/RorA/P

BPI Aura

BPI Personal Accounting

Breakthrough Timeline
►Central Point Copy // PC

Conceptual Inst rumen U Desk Oiganizer

Digital Research DRLogd

Digital Research Gem Desktop

Digital Research Gem Draw

Enertronics Energraphics

Funk Software Sideways
►Harvard Haivard Project Manager

Haivard Total Project Manager
►Hayes Smaitcom tl-Ne* VJ10Q Emulator
►Human Edge The Management Edge
►HumanEdge The Sales Edge
►HumanEdge Mind Prober

Infocom Cornerstone

Lifetree vblkswriterlll
► Lotus Development Lotus 1-2-3

MDBS Knowledgeman/2

1365.00*
365.00*
25.75-
26.00-
32.00'
305.00-
265.00*
4ft.00-

MicroPro Wordstar 2000
MicroPio Wordsfar2000\
MicroRim RBase 5000
Microsoft C Compiler
Microsoft Word -Latest version 2.0
Microsoft Multiplan
Microsoft Mouse

X Sense

230.00* ►MuJtimate Multimate (Latest version)

Utilities 3.0

Oasis Tr-e Word Plus

OpenSyatems P/OSalesA/RINVG/L AIP
TeamMgr.

Power Base Power Base

RealWortd GILAIPAIRorOEIINV

Rosesoli ProkeyVerslO 3

Ryan McFarlandftMCOSOL (Dev. System)
225.00* ►Samna Samna tit Word Processor
68.00' JT» Sawna Word ■ > M yi---MBa]M^ , - :
137.50* ►SaHeltteSoftwararVbrdflerfecj
110.00" Softcraft Fancy Fonts

Software Arts TKI Solver

Software PuWbhingPFS: File, Write. Graph

Software PublishingPfS Report

SorclmSupercafcW

Xanaro Ability

20.00'
157.00*
75.00*
25.00*
•73.00?.
1 55.00*
32.00*
175.00"

24.00'
242.00'
135.00*
26500*
295.00*

$219.00'
262.00'
300.00'
220.00'
202.00'
101.00*
107.00*
95.00'
190.00*
46.00*
75.00'
ea.275,00'

197.00*
ea.275.00*
65.00*
520.00-
227.00-
320.00*
190.00*
125.00'
200.00-
68.00'
64.00-
169.00'
247.50*

: HARDWARE FOR YOUR IBM

add shipping and handlmg charges found in italics next to price.)

DISK DRIVES wholesale MODEMS

52,149.00' (46 42) AST Reach! Short Slot 1200Baud
Internal Modem
Hayes Smarfmodem 1200BwtthNew

\OmegaBernoulliBox

Dual lOMGDiives
Maynard WS -1 fOMBtnternalHardDis* 730.00* (15.77)
Maynard WS-2 same as WS- 1 butwith 930.00* (20.30)

Sandstaar Floppy Controller (uses 1 slot)

l$tor

►PC Network WMBINTERNAL Height

AuioboQl Drive Nrw lower price

Dnves byShugartor Tandon
PC Network 10MB TapeBackup 419.00' (8.94)

Same unit used in Compaq's DeskPro!
►PC Network Hall Height OS/DD Drives 59.00* (127)

►Tandon TM 100-2 Full Height DS/DD Drives 93.00' (2 20)

Hayes Smartmodem 1200B Atone
330.00" (7 13) Prometheus Prornodem 1200B Internal
Quadram Quadmodem I1 1200 Baud
Hall Card w/Crosstalk XVI

Wholesale
$345.00* (250)

265.00" (2 50)
225.00' (2.50)
275.00- (2 50)

Ta|lgrass25MB ExtemallHard Disk
with 60MB Tape Backup
►Teac FD55-B Half Height DS/DD Dnves
►Teac J 2MBHal(HeighlDiskDrive(or AT

2,375.00- (5T 30)

VIDEOCARDS

Hercules Color Card wl Parallel Port
►Hercules Monochrome Graphics Card

80.00- (1 73)

$142.00* (2 50)

272.00* (2.50)

235.00- (2.50)

99.00- (250)

MULTIFUNCTION CARDS

Apparatarflam Expansioncard
►ASTS»>-Pac*"P/us With 64K
ASJI/OPIusi'l
AST Advantage for AT
Everex MagicCard/64K
►PC Network 51 2 K Memory Board w/OK
PC Network Six- Pack * Clone w/OK

Full Six-Pack" Features-Game Port Standard
Direct Import trom Taiwan at a Fabulous price '
1 year Warranty-Money back Guarantee
►PC Network I/O Plus II Clone 69.00" (2 50)

Ser/Par/Game/Clock standard
Quadram Improved Quadboard w/OK 170.00" (2 50)

Tecmar Captain Multifunction Card w/OK 146,00' (2 50)

Paradise Modular Graphics Card

► PC Network Hercules Mono Card Clone
100% Hercules Compatible I

110.00 (2.40) ►pc Network Co/or Card 69.00* (2 501

Peisyst Bob Card Ultra High Res Color 299.00' (2.50)

►STBGrap/»xP/us(/ 199.00* (2.50)

(simultaneous Mono Graphics & Color)
$139.00* (2.50)

19500* (250) ACCESSORIES

► Brand Name DS/DD Diskettes 58 95* (100)
Guaranteed for (.//e'/vofGener/c 1

►DS/DD Bulk Rate Special .59" ea.

Packaged in 50 with sleeves and labels
Guaranteed tor Life'
>PCHet*ork Replacement 130Watt 70.00' (270)

IBM-PC Power Supply-Gives your PC Ihesame
CapacityasanXT. Goodtoraddin Tape Drives
(without need (or a piggyback unit) and large
capacity disk drives.
StAAPCDoucumale.KeyooaidTemplates 9.99* (J. 00)

lor Lolus/DBase/Mullimale and others (Each)

120.00* (2.50)

355.00* (2.50)

160.00' (250)

69.00* (250) '

89.00' (2 50)

MEMORY CHIPS

►64K Memory UpgradeKits (9 Chips) $6.21' (100)

Quantity Discounts Available!

►64K Dynamic Ram Chips (Each) .69' (100)

► 2S6K Dynamic Ram Chips (Each) 2.25' (100)
►128KIBMATPiggybackChips(facn) 3.50* (100)

EXTERNAL MODEMS

Anc hot Signalman Express $205.00' (5.00)

Hayes Smartmodem 300 125.00* (5.00)

HayesSmartmodem 1200 340.00' ($.00)

Hayes Smartmodem 1200B with new 317.00* (2.50)

Smartcom II VT100 Emulator

Hayes Smartmodem 1200B Alone 265.00' (2 50)

►HayesSmartmodem 2400 535.00* (5.00)

Prometheus Promodem 1200 276.00' (6,00)

External 100% Hayes Compatible

► U.S. Robotics Courier 2400BPS Modem 450.00' (5 00)

► U.S. Robotics Password 195.00' (4 00)

LOWEST PRICE I200BPS Modem '

MONITORS

Wholesale
5110.00'
120.00'
130,00'
215.00'
365.00*
455.00'

COMPLETE SYSTEMS

(300)
(3.00)
(3 00)
(4 64)
(7.88)
(9.83)

Amdek Video 300G Composite Green
Amdek Video 300A Composite Amber
Amdek Video 310A IBM Type Amber
Amdek Color 300-Composile
Amdek Color 600-High Res RGB
Amdek Color 700-Ullra High Res
Amdek Color 710-700 w/Non Glare

Long Phosphor
Princeton HX-12 RGB Monitor
Princeton MAX- 12e

Work with Color or Mono Card!
Quadram Quadchrome II New!

640X200RGB wl 14" Screen!

Black. Phosphor Mask/IBM Case
►Samsung IT TTL IBM Type Amber

A great looking/peilormmg monochrome trom the

manufacturer of IBM's own color monitor
Taxan 440 Super Hi Res RGB 495.00' (1069)

Currently Available works with Persy si Bob Card
Zenith ZVM 1230 A Green HiRes/ 81.00' (1.75)

Won Glare

Wholesale
CALL
$1,575.00* (34.02)

475.00' (10 48)

289.00* (6.24)

85.00* (5 00/

Apple Macintosh Base Systems
AT&T 6300 PC CPU2

128K/2 Floppy/ 1 Serial 11 Parallel
AT&T 7300 Unix PC 3.699.00' (79.90)

lOMBHardDiskt 1 Floppy/ 512K
COMPAQ DeskPro/Tape Backup System 2.951.94* (6370)

W/640K1 1 Floppy! 10MB Hard Disk/

10MB Tape Drive/Monitor

Wholesale
►COMPAOHardD/sKPortaWe $2,235.00' (48.28)

10MB Hard DisklFloppy/256K
► IBM PC Base System 2DSDD/FDC/256K 1,425.00" (30 78)
►IBM PCProfessiona/ Hard Disk 1,709.00" (36 91)

\BMPC/ATBaseSy$tem-1.2MB 2.795.00" (60.37)

F/oppy/256K
IBM AT Professional System CALL

1.2MBFIoppy/20MBHardDiskl1 Ser!1 Par/512K

PRINTERS

TERMS & CONDITIONS

•PC NETWORK- Members pay just 8%above the wholesale price, phis shipping. All prices reflecl a 3% cash discount
Minimum shipping $2 50 per order International orders Call forshipping 4 handling charges Money Orders personal
an d company checks please allow 10 working days to clear All prices subject to change without notice!

IRENT BEFORE YOU BUY-Members areeligible lo join the NElWORK's Business and Game software Rental Libraries
and evaluate products for a full 14 (Regular) or 30 (VIP) days to see if it meets your needs. And The NETWORK'S rental
charges are far less lhan other software renlal services-Just 20% OF THE MEMBER WHOLESALE PRICE Rental titles
available in IBM/Appte/MAC and CP/M Formats. Hardware prices highliled by ► reflect recent major price reductions

►CilizenMSP-*0rVi"lV.' $:

160CPS/80COL/Fric +■ Trac
►CilizenMSP-J5 NEW! \

160CPS/132COL/Fric+ Trac
►CitizenMSP-20/vEW

200CPS/80COL/Fric + Trac
►CitiienMSP-25 NEW!

200CPSI132COUFric\ Trac
►Citizen Premiere 3 5 NEW!

35CPSDaisey\*heel/ 132COL/Fric+ Trac
►Epson LX-80 100CPS 80COL LQ Mode

New Modem

►Epson FX-85 299.00*

►Epson FX- 185 429.00*

Epson i.O-1500 799.00*

Epson SQ2000 NEW' Inkjet Printer 1 ,359,00'

(5.72)
(7.56)
(7.56)
(J0.76)
(8.32)
199.00* (4 30)

(6 46)
(9 27)
(17 26)
(29 35)

06CPS LO Model 1 76CPS Draft/ 132COL
Epson DX-35 35CPS 569.00' ( 12 29)

Letter Oua lity Prin ler
>HEC203020CPSLQ Parallel 605.00* (13 00)

► NEC 2050 20CPS Letter Quality Printer 605.00' (1300)

►NEC 353033CPS L Q Parallel
►NEC 3550 33CPS Letter Ouality Printer
► NEC 8850 55CPS Printer
►NEC Pmwnter 2 New! Color Dot Ma tnx
OkidataML 182New 120CPS/LQ

Model Fric/IBMGi ph/cs+more
Okidata ML 192 New Sleek Design/

160CPS/LQMode/FricllBMGraphics
Okidata Color 20 80CPS/ 100 +

CotomtLQMode/IBMGraphicsl + More
(fle uires Interlace)
Okidata IBM Interface for Okimate

Color 20
OkidataM L8 4 P200CPS 132C0L
Okidata ML93P 160CPS Wide Platen
Okidata 2410P Pacemark 350COL
Qume Sprint 11/40 40CPS LetterOualtly 1,
StarMicronicsPowerlype 18CPS
Toshiba P1340 80COLI 144CPS
Toshiba P341 New!210CPSI 132COL
Toshiba P35J New.' 288CPSI 132COL

888.00" (19 18)
920,00- (19 87)
,330.00" (28 73)
599.00- (J2 94)
CALL

CALL

CALL

CALL

CALL

CALL
155.00" (24.00)
300.00* (6.48)
436.00* (9 29)
430.00* (9.29)
975.00* (21.00)

PC NETWORK • MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
YES! Please enroll me as a member in the PC NETWORK™ and send my catalog featuring
thousands of computer products, all at just 8% above DEALER WHOLESALE PRICES. I will
also periodically receive "THE PRINTOUT", a special up-date on merchandise at prices
BELOW even those in my wholesale catalog, and all the other exclusive, money-saving
services available to Members.
I am under no obligation to buy anything. My complete satisfaction is guaranteed.

Please check (^) all boxes that apply:
• Basic Membership
With 14 Day Rentals

□ One-year membership for $8

□ Two-year membership for $15 (SAVE $1)

□ Business Software Rental Library for
$25 add'l. per year — members only

D Games Software Rental Library for
$10 add'l. per year — members only

326

□ Bill my

credit card:

□

VISA

□

MasterCard

□

American Express

Account
Number:

• Special V.I. P. Membership
With 30 Day Rentals

□ One-year membership for $15

□ Two-year membership for $25 (SAVE $5)

□ BOTH Business and Game Software
Rental Libraries for $30 add'l.

per year — V.I. P. members only

Exp.
Date .

□ Check or money order enclosed for $.

Name

Address

City

mo. year

. State .

. Apt. No.
Zip_

Telephone ( )

Mycomputer(s) Is: □ IBM PC □ IBM-XT □ IBM-AT □ Apple II D Macintosh D Other

Signature V*

(Signature required to validate membership) Copyright © 1985, PC NETWORK INC.

PC NETWORK • MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
YES! Please enroll me as a member in the PC NETWORK™ and send my catalog featuring
thousands of computer products, all at just 8% above DEALER WHOLESALE PRICES. I will
also periodically receive "THE PRINTOUT", a special up-date on merchandise at prices
BELOW even those in my wholesale catalog, and all the other exclusive, money-saving
services available to Members.
I am under no obligation to buy anything. My complete satisfaction is guaranteed.

Please check [y ) all boxes that apply:
• Basic Membership
With 14 Day Rentals

□ One-year membership for $8

□ Two-year membership for $15 (SAVE $1)

□ Business Software Rental Library for
$25 add'l. per year — members only

□ Games Software Rental Library for
$10 add'l. per year — members only

□ Bill my credit card: □ VISA □ MasterCard

326

• Special V.I. P. Membership
With 30 Day Rentals

□ One-year membership for $15

□ Two-year membership for $25 (SAVE $5)
D BOTH Business and Game Software

Rental Libraries for $30 add'l.
per year — V.I. P. members only

□ American Express

Account

Number:

□ Check or money order enclosed for $ .

Name

Address

City

Exp.
Date.

. State .

. Apt. No.
Zip_

Telephone ( )

My computer(s) is: □ IBM PC D IBM-XT D IBM-AT □ Apple II □ Macintosh D Other ,

Signature \^

(Signature required to validate membership) Copyright © 1985, PC NETWORK INC.

BUSINESS REPLY CARD

First Class

Permit No. 14823

Chicago, IL

POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE

PC NETWORK

320 West Ohio
Chicago, Illinois 60610

NO POSTAGE

NECESSARY

IF MAILED

IN THE

UNITED STATES

BUSINESS REPLY CARD

First Class

Permit No. 14823

Chicago, IL

POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE

PC NETWORK

320 West Ohio
Chicago, Illinois 60610

NO POSTAGE

NECESSARY

IF MAILED

IN THE

UNITED STATES

PLETE SYSTEMS

rarranty service available in most major metro ai

IBM PC BASE
SYSTEM

IBMPCw/256K

Floppy Drive Controller
2 Double Sided Double

Density Disk Drives
Mix and Match with

your Favorite Monitor

and Printer!

$1,425.00*

IBM PC
HARD DISK SYSTEM

IBMPCw/256K
Floppy Drive Controller
1 Double Sided Double

Density Disk Drive
Half Height 10MB

Disk Subsystem

$1,709.00*

CALLFOR

LATEST IBM

ANNOUNCEMENTS

im

m\

CUSTOM

CONFIGURATIONS

WELCOME

PORTABLE
HARD DISK SYSTEM

W256K/1 Floppy/ 10MB Hard Disk

com/wo.

TM

$2,235.00*w/iomb
$2,369,00 W/20MB

APPLE //c

DESKPRO SYSTEM
WITH TAPE BACKUP

640K CPU/1 Floppy /10MB Hard Disk
10MB Tape Drive/Monitor

$2,951 .94*w/iomb

$3,1 51 ,94*w/20MB

APPLE We

MACINTOSH
SYSTEMS

64KIBM PC MEMORY EXPANSION KITS
Quantity Discounts Available. ^^

Guaranteed for Life! a» Js& JSf

******

*i*

Set of 9 Chips

$6.21*

DISKETTES

Guaranteed for Life!

Brand name diskettes
available in boxes of 10
or in bulk packs of 50

5VDS/DD

$8,952

8x. lO^^B*- 50

.59*

SVVSS/DD

$7.95>

Bx.iqx^ x - 50

.47*

3%"SS/DD

l Bx. 10

$15.95'

Free Flip
File Case

1/2 HEIGHT DS/DD
DISK DRIVES

The Network buysdirect

and makes fantastic deals

with manufacturers like MPI/

Tandon/CDC/Shugart/Qume/

TEAC and others to bring you

fantastic prices on Name

Brand drives for your PC/ AT/

XT/jr/or Compatible.

$59.00*

Quantity Discounts Available

Lotus

$285.00*

Recent Price Increase by Lotus

INTERNALPC HARD DISK

Low Power/Automatic Boot. Works on standard PC's

and Compatibles. Includesdrive/controller/cables/

mounting hardware and instructions.

Full one year warranty!
10MB

$330.00*

20MB

$420.00*

Quantity Discount Available

Word Perfect

$190.00*

Multimate™

NETWORK

GET THE NETWORK ADVANTAGE!!!

*Members pay 8% above this wholesale price plus shipping.
CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-621-S-A-V-E {JSSSS^)

In Illinois call (312) 280-0002 Validation code: B326

Customer Service and OrderStatus (312) 280-1567

TM&R-Registered trademarks of IBM/COMPAQ/APPLE/AST Research/LOTUS/Multimatelnt.,/IOMEGA. Inquiry 252

SEE WHY OVER 100,000 HAVE JOINED
MAKING US THE NATION'S #1 SOURCE
FOR EVERYTHING IN COMPUTING. . .

• Our 600 Page Wholesale Catalog

Over 30,000 products priced at Wholesale + 9%. Anything
you will ever need at a Consistent low price. . .

• Quarterly Catalog Updates

Your Catalog is never obsolete! Keep on top of the newest
products and latest price changes.

• The Printout

Our newsletter gives you fantastic specials along with
unbiased analysis of new products and industry trends.

• 10 Day Returns on any Hardware!!

If you don't like any hardware product-for any reason
—return it for a refund.

• 1000 + Title Rental Library

14 to 30 day rentals on over 1000 different titles.
Try before you buy!!

• Size-Strength and Stability

The Network has over 100 employees, 40,000 square feet
of office and warehouse, inventory valued in excess of
$15,000,000 and is ranked the largest computer product
supplier in the Nation!! Our commitment is to serve our
customers and our 90% repeat business rate is proof!!

i

CALL TOLL FREE
1-800-621-S-A-V-E

(Orders-Membership and advice only!)

In Illinois call (312) 280-0002

Your Membership Validation Number B326

Customer Service and Order Status (312) 280-1567

You can validate your membership number and, if you wish,
place your first money-saving order over the phone by using
your VISA, MASTERCARD or AMERICAN EXPRESS. Our
knowledgeable service consultants are on duty Mon.-Fri
8:00 AM to 7:00 PM, SAT 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM CST

) PERSONAL COMPUTER NETWORK
320 West Ohio
Chicago, Illinois 60610
Call now. . Join the PC NETWORK and start saving today!

PC NETWORK • MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

YES! Please enroll me as amember in the PC NETWORK'" and rush my
catalog featuring thousands of computer products, all at just 8% above
DEALER WHOLESALE PRICES. I will also periodically receive "THE
PRINTOUT", a special up-date on merchandise at prices BELOW even those
in my wholesale catalog, and all the other exclusive, money-saving services
available to Members. i 1

B326 r I

I am under no obligation to buy anything. My complete satisfaction is
guaranteed. Please check (*>) all boxes that apply;

Basic Membership
With 14 Days Rental

D One-year membership for$8
□ Two-year membership for

$15(SAVE$1)
D Business Software Rental

Library for $25 add'l. per

year-with 14 day rentals
D Games Software Rental

Library for $10 add'l. per year

D Bill my credit card: D VISA

Special V.I.P. Membership*
With 30 Days Rental.

D One-year membership for $15

□ Two-year membership for $25
(SAVE $5)

□ BOTH Business and Game
Software Rental Libraries for$30
add'l. per year — with 30 day rentals
*VIP members receive advance

notice on limited quantity
merchandise specials
D MasterCard □ American Express

Account
Number:

Exp. Date _

□ Check or money order enclosed for $_

Name

Address -

City

. State „

_Apt. No. _
Zip.

Telephone ( ) .

My computer(s) is: D IBM PC a IBM-XT a IBM-AT a Apple II
a Macintosh D Other

Signature

(Signature required to validate membership)
Copyright© 1985, PC NETWORK INC.

BITE

Features

Ciarcias Circuit Cellar: As Steve Ciarcia explains is often the case, this month's Circuit Cellar project

Build an Audio-and-Video Multiplexer came about because of a dilemma he faced. The problem is that he's living

by Steve Ciarcia 84 j n a half-computerized house. The audio-visual systems, which are really im-

Programming Project: a SIMPL portant to him, haven't even been touched. Steve therefore embarked on a

Compiler, Part 3: Extensions project to develop a switching/multiplexing/amplifying system, which is called

by \onathan Amsterdam 102 the AVMUX It was designed both to provide a solution to the wiring maze

Introduction to the Amiga around his house and to facilitate a point-to-point switching system for audio

XbfnTmcal 116 ^d video signals.

y ° er ' lca This month's Programming Project is the final part of Jonathan Amsterdam's

T S Ra\ u^ RAMMING 135 article on his SIMPL com P iler - In this concluding section, he discusses how

y ap mn to handle user-defined types, arrays, strings, Ada-style parameter modes, and

Moleculkd? CcnloR T: open-array parameters. These extensions are not really difficult to implement,

by ]ohn J Farrell 149 ^ut designing them so they don't interact in harmful ways can be difficult.

Jonathan hopes that his explanations of the design choices involved will help

Programming Insight: u ■ j ■ j ■ i

Badfile: CP/M System V ou better understand programming languages.

Programming in C T^ e creator of Intuition, Robert J. Mical's first version of "Introduction to

by Louis Baker 157 the Amiga ROM Kernel" ran in three parts on BIX (BYTE Information Exchange)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ in October 1985. The parts have now been combined into one article that

introduces the building blocks of the Amiga ROM Kernel software, examines
the ROM Kernel, and looks at the hardware and special features of the ROM
Kernel.

LISP'S unnatural syntax can be simplified with the Visual Syntax editor.
"Visual Programming" by Raph Levien describes a program that is an editor
for LISP. It displays programs as pictures, with all data paths marked with
arrows, and it allows you to edit functions and expressions and view them
in typical LISP syntax.

We have received several program submissions in response to the article
"Viewing Molecules with the Macintosh" by Earl J. Kirkland, which ran in
February 1985. We feel that this month's Programming Insight, "Molecules in
Color" by John J. Farrell, is the best of the submissions. The BASIC program
COLOR3D.BAS is a program for the IBM PC and has many of the features
of the original MODEL3D.BAS, except that this program displays molecules
on an RGB monitor and each type of atom can be easily identified by its dif-
ferent color or pattern.

There are many CP/M utilities that were designed to help users correct bad
disks or tracks; however, most fail to identify the names and locations of those
files. The Programming Insight "Badfile: CP/M System Programming in C" is
an exception. The utility described was written in C and can be useful to CP/M
users, as it offers the valuable information that can help you salvage informa-
tion from your disks.

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 83

84 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

PHOTOGRAPHED BY PAUL AVIS

CIARCIAS CIRCUIT CELLAR

BUILD AN

AUDIOAND-VIDEO

MULTIPLEXER

by Steve Ciarcia

The AVMUX is a computer-controlled
high-performance router

When I was disenchanted
with the lack of timeliness
I of commercial weather
I forecasts, I built my own
mm weather station; when the

II world worried about the

■H cost and availability of oil,
I built a computer-controlled central-heating
wood stove; when I got tired of waiting for
slow interpretive BASICS to crunch through
my programs, I built a fast BASIC "engine"
and did it in hardware; when I got frustrated
hunting for light switches in the dark, I built
a home-control system and installed com-
puterized lighting.

It should be apparent to you by now that
I don't hesitate to present ambitious solu-
tions where I perceive inadequacies. I seri-
ously believe in the old adage that "Neces-
sity is the mother of invention." Unfor-
tunately, in my case "necessity" has been
broadly redefined to include "convenience,"
and the unbridled application of this "in-
vention" has led to interesting responses
from others.

There are the housekeepers ("from the
old country") who cross themselves before
beginning work because they have no con-
cept of automatic lighting or automatically
answered phones and really think my place
is haunted. There are the neighbors who
picked up broadcasts from my automatic
voice-synthesized weather station and

called NASA to see if they had lost any-
thing. There are the zoning-board officials
who don't believe that my 15-foot satellite
dish looks quite enough like an umbrella
next to the picnic table. And, if things
weren't bad enough, there are the eight
state and local policemen who surrounded
my house after the security system reported
a burglary in progress that turned out to be
my Scotties in the dog-biscuit barrel.

All right, I'll admit that some people don't
understand the true gravity of the projects
1 present, but it is a weighty issue. For me,
it is a process of recognizing a need, for-
mulating an approach, and embarking on
a solution. Frequently 1 come up with
BASIC-52 and SB180 projects, but when it
really gets down to the basics, convenient
living is facilitated more by the design of
Whimsi-Bells and talking weather stations.
Remember, if Ben Franklin already had an
AC outlet to plug in his electric shaver, he
never would have flown a kite in a thunder-
storm.

This brings me to my latest dilemma. The
problem is that I'm living in a half-corn-

[continued)

Steve Garcia [pronounced ,% see-ARE~see~ah") is an
electronics engineer and computer consultant with ex-
perience in process control, digital design, nuclear in-
strumentation, and product development. He is the
author of several books about electronics. You can
write to him at POB 582, Glastonbury, CT 06033.

COPYRIGHT © 1986 STEVEN A. CIARCIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 85

CIRCUIT CELLAR

puterized house. That's right, half. The
security system, inside and outside
lighting, and HVAC (heating, ventilat-
ing, and air conditioning) systems are
automated. Unfortunately, the really
important things— the stereo, televi-
sion, and other audiovisual— haven't
even been touched. When 1 am in the
kitchen cooking some wild Italian
delicacy and watching The Muppet Show
and leave to go into the bedroom or
bathroom momentarily I have to turn
on the television in that room (don't
you have one in your bathroom?) and
switch to the correct channel.

How humiliating to be so manual.
With a control system intelligent
enough to turn the light on in any
room I enter, and even announce
when someone arrives in the drive-

way, why can't it tune the television
or stereo to the right station or switch
the output of a driveway camera to
where 1 am?

I'm not talking about some new
form of audiovisual background music
a la piped-in MTV (you know, back-
ground music is that absolutely awful
radio station selected by some
grocery-store manager who believes
the definition of culture is the green
stuff on bread). It's just that I have
many separate video and audio
sources but few connections among
them. For example, the satellite
receiver is in the Circuit Cellar with a
remote control and color monitor in
the bedroom. Unfortunately, it doesn't
go anywhere else. If I want to watch
something on Satcom F3 while pre-

paring a snack, I'd better plan on lots
of crumbs in the bed.

The HCS (Home Run Control Sys-
tem) and the outside television
cameras each have their own moni-
tors. (Remember, the Circuit Cellar is
underground, and it's easy to miss
visitors who don't pound hard on the
door or bring a bullhorn. Forget my
dogs, Scotties bark at falling leaves.
You'd install a television camera on
the driveway too after running up-
stairs only to find it was some dumb
squirrel they saw.) Unfortunately, all
the monitors, television sets, and
stereos are starting to get a bit messy.
Every new system 1 seem to add
around here has a video output re-
quiring a display and, since I'm not
always in the Circuit Cellar, I start

VIDEO
(COAX)

VCR

AUDIO
(2 LINES)

2 TO 1

MONITOR
#1

4 TOl

AMP
# 1

VIDEO
(COAX)

TV
RECEIVER

AUDIO
(2 LINES)

2 TO 1

MONITOR
# 2

4 TO 1

AMP
#2

CD
PLAYER

AUDIO
(2 LINES)

2 TO 1

MONITOR
#3

4 TOl

AMP
#3

2 TOl

MONITOR
#4

FM
RECEIVER

AUDIO
(2 LINES)

4 TO 1

AMP
#4

Figure I : A diagram for connecting audio/video sources to various outputs via brute-force point-to-point wiring. This scheme
requires 8 coax and 32 shielded-conductor cables, along with a set of selector switches at the receiving end.

86 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

stringing and installing ... I'm sure
you get the picture.

In point of fact, the Circuit Cellar is
fairly neat. The storage area behind
it where you find all the wiring for the
various control and display systems,
is another story entirely. Looking like
something halfway between the tele-
phone company's switching office and
the scrap pile at some wire and cable
company, the walls behind the Circuit
Cellar office are going to cave in from
all the holes drilled for routing cables.
Recently. I went out back to see how
much trouble it would be to add an-
other monitor from the satellite
receiver. On one 2- by 10-inch beam
1 counted four 16-conductor cables,
two 12-conductor shielded cables,
four twisted-pair shielded wires,
eleven twisted-pair wires, two 4-con-
ductor telephone cables, three RG-58
coaxial cables, and six shielded-
conductor cables. Believe me, I
haven't the slightest idea where most
of this stuff terminates. When I built
the Circuit Cellar I prewired it to some
extent but I never could find that list
of what went where.

Cleaning Up the Wiring Maze

Frankly speaking, this place needs a
little organization— computerized,
that is. Until now, every audio or video
source has been treated as a separate
system with dedicated extensions.
While it's nice to see what's happen-
ing with the HCS and important to
view the outside cameras when some-
one arrives, these requirements rare-
ly occur simultaneously. Thus, it
seems extravagant to have monitors
stacked all over the place. At the very
least, video sources from control sys-
tems and cameras should be multi-
plexed and displayed on a single
monitor. Television, satellite, and
videocassette recorder (VCR) video
can be multiplexed and sent to color
monitors, etc. In the end, I'd not only
neaten the wiring but have all the
elements of the convenient automatic
audiovisual system I alluded to earlier.
Directing an audio or video source
to multiple outputs is easier than it
sounds. Adding a remote set of
speakers to a stereo system is relative-

ly easy. The ease is not because the
connection is electrically inconse-
quential but because the necessary
function has been provided for by the
manufacturer. The typical stereo has
an A and B speaker switch with con-
nectors on the rear of the case where
two separate sets of stereo speakers
are attached. If you are listening to
music in the living room and go to the
bedroom, you can press the B remote
switch to turn on speakers there. The
connection and speaker impedances
have already been accounted for by
the manufacturer, and both the A and
B speaker systems perform together
without overstressing the amplifier.
Adding a third set of speakers is an
entirely different matter. If they are at-
tached in parallel with a pair of the

existing speakers, the power con-
sumption will double. If added in
series, there will be a large difference
in volume levels between the A and
B speaker pairs.

Beyond the two pairs of speakers
designed to be accommodated by the
amplifier, trying to simultaneously
power many remote sets of speakers
directly is a game of impedance
matching. Realize that with speakers,
especially, we are driving low-
impedance loads with relatively high
power. While eight sets of speakers
could be successfully multiplexed
through an external switch attached
to the A and B outputs (only two
speaker pairs enabled at once), the
switches would probably have to be

{continued)

0UTPUT#1 0UTPUT#2 OUTPUT #3 OUTPUT #4

<¥^~TL ^^L <#>^L < 5^TL

INPUT
#1

#2

INPUT
#3

INPUT
#4

.5*

(1.1)

2.1)

-X

(3. 1)

-^

(A, 1)

JV

fl. 2)

-^

(2, 2)

-^

(3, 2)

-U

(4, 2)

(1. 3)

-^

{2, 3)

-^

(3. 3)

-^

(4, 3)

^

(1,4)

-^

(2.4)

(3.4)

-5*

(4, 4)

Figure 2: A 4 by 4 crosspoint matrix.

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 87

CIRCUIT CELLAR

mechanical for best price/perfor-
mance. (Driving 20 watts continuous
into an 8-ohm speaker load is almost
3 amperes. It's much more when it
hits a bass note!) Another considera-
tion is the connecting wire. If the load
is only 4 or 8 ohms and you attach
them through thin wire, you will be
dissipating more audio power in the
cabling than in the speakers. Even #14
or # 1 6 wire may b e inadequate i f you
are used to high listening levels. Often,
the only solution is thick "monster"
cable. The last time I bought some it
was $475 a roll.

You can still string speaker cable if
you wish, but the preferred solution
is to do a little distributed processing.
Instead of using low-impedance out-
puts connected directly to the
speakers, we use high-impedance (1-

to 10-kilohm) audio signals from the
tape or auxiliary outputs and send
them to independent amplifiers at
each speaker pair (1 never said the
solution was cheap, only that it was
the way I as an engineer would do it).
By dealing with low current and high
impedances, you can use relatively in-
expensive solid-state CMOS (comple-
mentary metal-oxide semiconductor)
switches as multiplexers.

With each speaker pair no longer
dependent on a single amplification
source, many separate and distinct
audio programs can be sent to each
amplifier and speaker set. For exam-
ple, the output of a speech synthe-
sizer could greet guests in the foyer,
Mahler could be playing in the kitchen
as you prepare dinner, and the full
stereo accompaniment to a video-

taped presentation of Flashdance could
be on the projection television (via
monitor and auxiliary inputs) in the
family room. All these sources would,
of course, be coming from a little
room downstairs where the master
audio-and-video multiplexer sat next
to all the program sources.

The need for a video-switching sys-
tem can be justified on the same
grounds. With video, however, it is not
a simple matter of stringing miles of
coaxial cable from the monitor out-
put of your new television and switch-
ing in remote sets. The signal degrada-
tion from long lines and poorly
matched impedances mandates the
need for dedicated amplifiers for each
video monitor, especially when driven
from a single source. The switch used
for video must also be different since

VIDEO

AUDIO
(2 LINES)

MONITOR
# 1

AMP
# 1

VIDEO

2X4

CROSSPOINT

VIDEO

AUDIO
(2 LINES)

MONITOR
#2

AMP
# 2

AUDIO
(2 LINES)

MONITOR
# 3

AUDIO
4X4X2

CROSSPOINT

AMP
#3

MONITOR
# 4

AUDIO
(2 LINES)

AMP
# 4

Figure 3 : The wiring in figure 1 can be simplified considerably by using a pair of crosspoint switches, one for video signals
and one for audio signals.

88 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

it has to handle the higher frequen-
cies associated with these signals.

This switching/multiplexing/amplify-
ing system is this month's project.
Dubbed the Circuit Cellar AVMUX
(audio-video multiplexer), it was de-
signed both to provide a solution to
the wiring maze around my house
and to facilitate a truly functional com-
puterized point-to-point switching
system for audio and video signals.
Totally automatic and easily con-
nected to virtually any computer sys-
tem or controller, I envision it as the
central element in my pie-in-the-sky
voice-activated home-control system.
For today, however, it's just a local/
remote computer-controlled cross-
point switch.

While some similar switching sys-
tems are on the consumer market,

none in my opinion offers as many
channels or the potential program-
ming flexibility afforded in the
AVMUX. Briefly, the AVMUX has eight
input and eight output channels each
for audio and video signals. Each out-
put has its own amplifier and can
derive its signal source from any in-
put. This means that all eight outputs
can reflect the program content of a
single input or eight distinctly
separate outputs. I designed it as a
state-of-the-art solution to a particular
problem while documenting it so that
you can duplicate it. You might think
this is all "much ado about nothing"
if you haven't tried to do more than
add a remote set of speakers to the
stereo in the den, but I assure you
there is much more to it than that.
Assume you have these sources:

stereo television set with monitor out-
puts, VCR with stereo outputs, stereo
compact-disc player, and FM stereo
receiver; there are four locations in
the house other than the den where
you might want to selectively view or
listen to any one of these program
sources. At first, you might consider
simply running wires from each
source output with wires to the
separate rooms (8 coax and 32
shielded-conductor cables, as shown
in figure 1). At the receiving end, a 4
to I rotary or push-button selector
switch would choose the appropriate
source and route it to the display or
amplifier input. Of course, this tech-
nique ignores the fact that we are
driving signals into unterminated
cables most of the time, and it is

[continued)

IN CHANNEL IN CHANNEL 1

«fch

DATA
BUS

D0-
Dl-
D2-
D3-

D4-
D5-
D6-
07-

CLK
ID 1Q

20
30
4

74LS374

8-BIT

LATCH

5D
6D
7D
8D

50
60
70
8Q

IN]
IN 2
IN|

IN 4

DG211
4-

CHANNEL
MUX

(0,0)

<n>]

(1.0)

(0,1)

j</[)3

(1.1)

INf

IN 3

IN 4

DG211
4-
CHANNEL

MUX

(0,2)

(1.2)

(0,3)

(1.3)

SI

</di

■a

S3

</o:

D3

■a

Figure 4: A block diagram of a 2 by 4 crosspoint switch constructed using traditional IC technology.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 89

CIRCUIT CELLAR

possible for all four receiving video
monitors to be tuned to the VCR, for
example. If that were the case, the
video signal would be severely de-
graded unless sufficiently amplified
along the way (matching impedances
again).

What Is a Crosspoint
Switch?

The previous technique, while elec-
trically sound, requires a prodigious
wiring effort and a large pocketbook
for potentially less-than-acceptable
results. A more state-of-the-art solu-
tion uses a crosspoint switch. As the

name implies, the crosspoint switch is
actually a matrix of independently
controlled switches. A 4 by 4 cross-
point switch is diagramed in figure 2.
The 4 rows on the left are the signal
inputs, and the 4 columns down from
the top are the outputs (a common
ground is assumed). The switch con-
nection across each matrix crosspoint
is a CMOS switch called a transmis-
sion gate. These switches can all be
integrated into a single LSI (large-scale
integration) package or be separate
switches, like those provided in a
CD4066 or DG2II multiplexer (the
choice of switches is primarily depen-

dent on frequency).

To route input #2 to output #1,
simply close the switch at crosspoint
location (2,1). Similarly input #4 to
output #3 is facilitated by closing the
switch at (4,3). Finally, all four outputs
can have the same input, for example,
input #1. by closing switches at (1,1),
(1,2), (1,3), and (1,4). (Note: Care must
be taken not to close switches that will
short inputs together.) If we apply this
technique using 2 by 4 and 4 by 4 by
2 crosspoint switches to the house-
wiring situation described before, we
can see that the wiring is greatly
simplified (figure 3). Rather than 40

CD—
©—

®—
©—
©—

1

T

T

T

T

T

T

1

.(j "0

x Y

*1 Y

1

X 2 Y
2

x 3 y
3

x 4 Y

4

x 5 Y o
5

X6 Y
6

— I

x? Y o

7

r

T

T

T

T

T

T

T

■ —O T J

1

n Y-d

X Y 1

8

— 4

1

9

x zYl

10

x 3 Y i
11

X 4 Yj
12

X 5 Y 1
13

— <

1

x 6 Y i

14

X 7 Y 3

15

— *

r

T

T

T

?

T

T

Y 1

tr
y
o
o

w
o

bJ

Z
_J
1

t£>

o
h

LJ
Z
_l
1
U3

10

Id

X

o

<

_J

X Y 2

16

Xl Y 2

17

X 2 Y 2
18

X 3 Y 2
19

X 4 Y 2
20

X 5 Y 2

21

— i

►

X 6 Y 2
22

X? Y 2
23

r

T

T

T

T

T

T

T

O Tj

X Y 3
24

Xl Y 3
25

X Z Y 3
26

x 3 Y 3
27

X4 Y 3
28

— <

1

X 5 Y 3
29

— 1

1

Xfi Y 3
30

— i

1

X? Y 3

31

r

T

t

T

T

T

T

f

O T 4

X Y 4
32

—(

►

Xl Y 4
33

X 2 Y 4
34

X 3 Y 4

35

X 4 Y 4

36

— <

I

X 5 Y 4
37

— I

1

Xfi Y 4
38

X 7 Y 4

39

r

T

T

T

T

T

T

T

O Y 5

*0 Y 5
40

Xl Y 5
41

X 2 Y 5
42

X3 Y 5
43

X 4 Y 5
44

X 5 Y 5
45

— I

►

X 6 Y 5
46

—i

1

X? Y 5
47

1

T

f

T

T

T

T

O Y b

X Y 6
48

1

►

Xl Y 6
49

X 2 Y 6
50

X 3 Y 6

51

X4 Y 6

52

X 5 Y 6
53

— I

1

X 6 Y 6
54

X? Y 6

55

r

I

T

T

I

T

T

>

J9263

X Y 7

56

X] Y 7
57

X 2 Y ?
58

X 3 Y 7
59

X 4 Y 7
60

X5 Y 7

61

— (

1

X 6 Y 7

62

X 7 Y 7

63

<

X

>

(
X

>
1

<

X

2

(

X

>
3

<

X

1

4

<
X

>
5

X

>
6

92 C

i

x

L-,

Figure 5a: A block diagram of the 74HC22106 8 by 8 crosspoint-switch IC.

90 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

long cables, we have to run only 4
coax and 8 shielded-conductor
cables.

As is always the case, if it were this
simple we'd all be doing it already.
The stumbling blocks to this have
been the expense of high-quality
CMOS switches, the voluminous sup-
port circuitry necessary to physically
build the crosspoint matrix, and lack
of a reasonably priced intelligent
local/remote control system.

CMOS switches like the CD4016 and
4066 are adequate for audio frequen-
cies but don't have the bandwidth or
transfer characteristics for high-quality

video (you can use them if you don't
mind some f uzziness). One switch that
has all the right characteristics, how-
ever, is the Siliconix DG2 1 1 4-channel
multiplexer (four separate SPST
Isingle-pole single-throw| switches,
just like the CD4066).

To give you an idea of present tech-
nology figure 4 outlines the sche-
matic of a typical 2 by 4 crosspoint
switch (eight crosspoints) configured
with two DG211s. One problem with
this approach, however, is that
DG2 1 Is (or CD4066s) are not latching
switches and must have a constant
signal applied to their control line if

+ 5V

LATCH ON/OFF

CROSSPOINT
ADDRESS

STROBE

3 1 13

CE V 0D

XO

DATA XI

X2

X3

X4
AO

X5

A1 X6
A2 X7

A3
A4

A5 YO

Yl

RCA

74HC22106 Y2

Y3

STB Y4

Y5

Y6

6

4

23

7

22

8

24

21

25

9

26

20

27

28

1

18

17

16

15

2

14

13

12

10

11

V SS

) INPUTS

) OUTPUTS

T

Figure 5b: A pin-out diagram of the 74HC22106.

a switch is to stay closed. To facilitate
this, a separate 8-bit latch is required
with its outputs connected to the con-
trol inputs of the DG211s. The 8-bit
latch in turn is loaded and controlled
directly from a computer bus. Routing
input #1 to output #3 (closing switch
point 1,3) is simply a matter of loading
80 hexadecimal (128 decimal) into the
latch.

This 2 by 4 matrix is not particular-
ly difficult to build, since it requires
only 3 ICs (integrated circuits). A 4 by
4 matrix, by comparison, would re-
quire 6 chips, and, unfortunately, the
8 by 8 configuration I want would take
at least 1 2 chips. So much for present
technology.

THE RCA 74HC22106

Of course, I wouldn't be going
through all this unless I planned on
pulling something new out of the hat.
RCA has just introduced a new chip
called the 74HC2 2106. Shown in
detail in figures 5a-5c, it is a full 8 by
8 crosspoint switch complete with ad-
dressable on-chip latches. Instead of
using 12 ICs, we can configure a full

8 by 8 crosspoint multiplexer with a
single chip!

The 74HC22106 uses silicon-gate
CMOS technology that results in
input-level compatibility with LSTTL
(low-power Schottky transistor-
transistor logic) yet the low power
consumption typical of CMOS (it has
2- to 10-volt operation). At 5 V, typical
switch resistance (Ron) is 95 ohms and
bandwidth is 5 megahertz (9 MHz at

9 V). Operation of the 74HC22106 is
straightforward. Each of the 64 cross-
point latch/switches can be uniquely
addressed through six crosspoint ad-
dress lines, A0-A5. If the transmission
gate at that point is to be turned on,
the STROBE input is pulsed to a logic
low while chip enable CE is low and
DATA is high. To turn off a transmis-
sion gate, the process is repeated with
DATA low. RESET clears all the latches
and opens all matrix crosspoints.

Using the 74HC22 106, it is easy for
me to implement the automated
audio-video switching system de-
scribed earlier. With a 5-MHz band-

{continued)

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 91

CIRCUIT CELLAR

width, it is a natural for video signals,
and 8 by 8 is perfect for all the
sources I have. But what about audio?
Generally speaking, if the switch
works well at high frequencies, it
works better at low frequencies. And,
being a true crosspoint switch, under
program control it can be configured
to look like a 4 by 4 by 2 for stereo
inputs rather than an 8 by 8 orienta-
tion. Stereo signals connected to two
adjacent inputs, inputs #2 and #3, for
example, are switched as a pair to two
adjacent outputs like #6 and #7. In ac-
tuality, the switch is still 8 by 8, but
the software thinks of it as a 4 by 4

with two transmission-gate set points
each time. Of course, you can selec-
tively multiplex monaural and stereo
signals as well as connect one
monaural signal to both channels of
a stereo amplifier.

The Circuit Cellar AVMUX

Figure 6 is the block diagram of the
Circuit Cellar AVMUX. The same basic
circuit is used for both audio and
video. If used for video, the configura-
tion is 8 by 8, and the input im-
pedance-matching resistors are 150
ohms. When used for stereo audio, it
becomes a 4 by 4 by 2 multiplexer

with an input resistor of 10 kilohms
(see photo 1).

One new item not previously de-
scribed is an amplifier on each out-
put. As I mentioned earlier, with a
crosspoint switch it is possible to have
all eight outputs coming from one in-
put. By using separate amplifiers with
high input impedances, this signal is
not loaded down, and each destina-
tion monitor receives a clean, power-
ful level, even through 50 or 100 feet
of coax. Figure 7a is the circuit of the
video amplifier I used. It is an LM3 59
noninverting amplifier with a x2 ad-
justable gain (more gain is needed for

fii r- n - li -i i «->

/^piT 1 f 7*1 ||^1

r ILL NO. 1 / 13

LUd4/ /4HL£4. iud, L.U34/ / m-io I CCIVO

TRUTH TABLE

A 5 A 4 A 3

A 2

Ai

Ao

SWITCH SELECT

A 5 A 4

A 3

A 2

Ai A

SWITCH SELECT

x o Y o

1

Xo Y 4

1

Xi Y

1

1

Xi Y 4

1

x 2 Y o

1

1

X 2 Y 4

1

1

X 3 Y

1

1 1

X 3 Y 4

1

X 4 Y

1

1

X 4 Y 4

1

1

X 5 Y

1

1

1

*5 Y 4

1

1

X 6 Yo

1

1

1

X 6 Y 4

1

1

1

1

X 7 Y

1

1

1 1

X 7 Y 4

1

Xo Yi

1

Xo Y 5

0, 1

1

X : Yi

1

1

Xi Y 5

o' 1

1

X 2 Yj

1

1

X 2 Y 5

1

1

1

X 3 Yi

1

1 1

X 3 Y 5

1

1

X 4 Y }

1

1

X 4 Y 5

1

1

1

X 5 Yj

1

1

1

X 5 Y 5

1

1

1

X 6 Yi

1

1

1

X 6 Y 5

1

1

1

1

X 7 Yi

1

1

1 1

X 7 Y 5

1

Xo Y 2

Xo Y 6

1

1

Xl Y 2

1

Xl. Y 6

1

1

X 2 Y 2

i 6

X 2 Y 6

1

1

1

X 3 Y 2

1 1

X 3 Y 6

1

1

X 4 Y 2

1

X 4 Y 6

1

1

1

X 5 Y 2

1

1

X 5 Y 6

1

1

1

X 6 Y 2

1

1

X 6 Y 6

1

1

1

1

X 7 Y 2

1

1 1

X 7 Y 6

1 1

Xo Y 3

Xo Y 7

1 1

1

Xi Y 3

1

Xl Y 7

1 1

1

X 2 Y 3

1

X 2 Y 7

1 1

1

1

X 3 Y 3

1 1

X 3 Y 7

1 1

1

X 4 Y 3

1

X 4 Y 7

1 1

1

1

X 5 Y 3

1

1

X 5 Y 7

1 1

1

1

X 6 Y 3

1

1

X 6 Y 7

1 1

1

1

1

X 7 Y 3

1

1 1

X 7 Y 7

Figure 5c: The switch-selection table for the 74HC22106. The selected switch is opened or closed based on the state of the
DATA input line (see figure 5 b).

92 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

longer cables). It is designed primari-
ly for impedance matching rather
than pure voltage gain. As such, it will
be most often set as a x I buffer.
Power required is + 1 2 V.

The audio amplifiers shown in figure
7b are considerably less complicated
and consist merely of noninverting
high-impedance x I buffers. This is ac-
ceptable because the inputs they will
be connected to are themselves gain-
adjustable, and it is unnecessary to
provide it twice. Power required is
±12 V.

Figure 8 is the schematic of the
switching-and-amplification portion of

the Circuit Cellar AVMUX (only 8
chips are needed for both crosspoint
switches and all the amplifiers). Figure
9 is the microcomputer interface that
controls everything. I haven't men-
tioned it up to this point. I felt doing
so would muddy the water since it is
needed more to coordinate the bells
and whistles (like seven-segment
LEDs |light-emitting diodes| and a
video presentation of the chosen
crosspoints on a BCC-22 Ikrm-Mite
smart-terminal board— all I needed
was another video source!) than to
control the multiplexers themselves.
A computer is really only required

to set or reset the gates in the cross-
point matrices. While 1 intend to
dedicate one of my BCC-52 BASIC
controllers to the task, we shouldn't
have to have a video monitor to know
what channel is going where. I will
presume we already know the sources
of the inputs and that they can't
change unless we physically move the
wires. Only an output's source is in
question.

To solve this dilemma, I added a
seven-segment LED at each output
connector. If input #2 is channeled to
output #7, the LED at #7 would dis-
continued)

CE|>

DATA ON /OFF O -

ADDRESS O"

7 @-f )\

U if if

74HC22106

CROSSPOINT

SWITCH

XO YO

XI Yl

X2 Y2

X3 Y3

X4 Y4

X5 Y5

X6 Y6

X7 Y7

>

H>

GAINsl VIDEO AUDIO

BUFFER AMPLIFIERS

^

XI

tO) channelo

CHANNEL 1

■tO) CHANNEL 2

STEREO
CHANNEL'O

X1 ^~-© CHANNEL 3

X1 \ £J) CHANNEL 4

-E> — |

STEREO
CHANNEL 1

) CHANNEL 5

STEREO
CHANNEL 2

CHANNEL 6

X1 y J©) CHANNEL 7

STEREO
CHANNEL 3

Figure 6: A block diagram of the Circuit Cellar AVMUX. This same basic circuit works for both audio and video signals.
Details of the support components (buffers, capacitors, etc.) vary accordingly.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 93

CIRCUIT CELLAR

play the number 2. Similarly, if #6
goes to #1, the LED at #1 would in-
dicate a 6. If no output is pro-
grammed, the LED is off. Unfortunate-
ly, the LED displays involve more cir-
cuitry than the crosspoint switches,
but I thought they were necessary.
lb limit the number of components,
I did take some poetic license in the
design of the LED driver (or non-
driver), however. As shown in figure
10, each LED is connected to an 8-bit
latch. Rather than use a 4-bit BCD
(binary-coded decimal)-to-decimal
decoder driver connected to a latch,
I directly drive the LED with the seg-
ment data in the latch. For example,
to display the number I , we have to
light segments B and C. This is ac-
complished by loading 06 hexadeci-
mal (6 decimal) in the latch. The com-

plete list of displayed numbers and
their corresponding values is given in
table I.

One caution. This is not the most
foolproof -engineered LED driver cir-
cuit. I used it only because I was get-
ting tired of wiring. For it to be suc-
cessful, the current supplied to the
LED should be within the operating
limits of the 74LS374 latch, and total
package power dissipation should not
be exceeded. By using high-efficiency
LEDs, bright displays are obtained
with only 5 milliamperes per segment.
While the schematic shows inex-
pensive MAN74A LEDs, I used
MAN3640A LEDs that barely heat the
LS374 and are very bright (both will
work, but giving part numbers that no
one will ever find on schematics is
counterproductive).

The AVMUX connects to a com-
puter through a bus of sorts. TWo of
the three on-board parallel ports from
a BCC-52 BASIC computer/controller
(August 1985, page 104) synthesize an
address/data-and-control bus (see
figure 9). Port A is the address/data
bus; port B is the control bus. lb con-
nect video input #2 to output #5,
merely set the transmission-gate
number of the 74HC22 106 on port A
with its MSB (most significant bit) set
high for ON, set bit 6 of port B high
to enable the video crosspoint-
switches' CE, and make a high-low-
high transition on the MSB of port B.
To reset (turn off) the #2-to-#5 connec-
tion, the sequence is repeated with
the MSB of port A set low. The
transmission-gate number of input #2
and output #5 is simply calculated as

lpF

4.7K
-VW-

VI DEO /

INPUT v

470 A4 F
■150 ft +./

— wv ?-lL —

'OUTPUT

£20K

Figure 7a: A schematic of the amplifier circuit used in the AVMUX's video-output stage.

AUDIO/
INPUT *

b)

0.1 M F

#

\AUDI0

Figure 7b: A schematic diagram of the amplifier circuit used in the AVMUX's audio-output stage.

94 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

(out* 8) + in or (5*8) + 2, which is gate
42 on the 74HC22106.

Audio set points are calculated and
passed by a similar sequence. The
only difference is that the audio multi-
plexer is enabled by bit 5 instead of
bit 6 on port B. For stereo channels,
two gates would be closed.

Once the crosspoint switches are
set, the appropriate segment data
must be latched to LEDs. The 12 LEDs
(8 video and 4 audio) are controlled
through a 4- to 16-line 74LS154
decoder chip. With the segment data
as described above set on port A, and
the 1-12 address code (they. are
physically connected as LEDI-LEDI2
rather than 0-1 1 so as not to acciden-
tally enable an LED at address 0) set
on the 4 least significant bits of port
B, to latch the segment data into the
addressed register, you toggle bit 4
on port B low then high again. Listings
1 and 2 are simple BASIC-52 pro-
grams that exercise the AVMUX.

The AVMUX can be remotely or
locally controlled. Since the controller
is a BCC-52 computer, we are not talk-
ing dumb. Even with its connections
to the AVMUX, the BCC-52 still has a
serial I/O (input/output) port ' and
another parallel port. Multiplexer con-
trol information can be transmitted to
it serially from the other side of the
house (or country) or through a small
keypad connected to the extra paral-
lel port. If we use a hexadecimal key-
board-encoder chip, we not only can
have multiple keypads but are left
with a few extra bits that could be
connected to direct outputs from the
HCS.

The HCS, sensing a particular series
of events, like walking from one room
to another, could then direct the
BCC-52 to execute a preprogrammed
event sequence. The typical action
might simply be to switch the stereo
into the room I entered. Fortunately,
now that I have an operational
AVMUX, HCS, and BCC-52, such
thoughts are becoming closer to reali-
ty. (See photo 2.)

easily program it in BASIC I'm well on
my way to the automated audio-video
switching system I wanted. As it
stands, I may have to build another
AVMUX because the present one is

already full, with the satellite receiver,
two VCRs, the laser disk, projection
television, two outside cameras, HCS,
and the AVMUX itself.

{continued)

Photo 2: The finished AVMUX joins the HCS in the Circuit Cellar storage area. The
card cage to the right contains the BCC-5 2, a Term-Mite video-display board, and a
couple of analog-to-digital converter boards.

DISPLAY & LOCATION

BEDROOM B&R MONITOR
CIRCUIT CELLAR B&H
PROJECTION TV MONITOR
KITCHEN COLOR MONITOR
BATHROOM B&H MONITOR
BEDROOM COLOR MONITOR
DARKROOM B&H MONITOR
STORAGE/HCS AREA MONITOR

AMPLIFIER LOCATION

BEDROOM/BATHROOM
KITCHEHAIVIN6 ROOM
CIRCUIT CELLAR
GARAGE/STORAGE AREA

VIDEO SOURCE

HOME CONTROL SYSTEM
DRIVEWAY CAMERA
SATELLITE RECEIVER
VCR #1

DRIVEWAY CAMERA
AUDIO/VIDEO MUX
LASER DISK PLAYER
GARAGE CAMERA

AUDIO SOURCE

SPEECH/TONE SYNTHESIZERS
CD/FM STEREO
CD/FM STEREO
SPEECH/TONE SYNTHESIZERS

In Conclusion

Since the BCC-52 is versatile enough
that software slowpokes like me can

Photo 3: Using the BCC-52 and a video-display controller, a display of the
AVMUX's configuration by location and source is easier to read than LEDs.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 95

CIRCUIT CELLAR

STROBE O

"U"

Figure 8: A circuit diagram of the switching-and-arnplification portion of the AVMUX.

96 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

IN #0

0.1/*F

-)h

23

21

O.ljuF
AUDIOES - M

IN #7S?

^h

:iok

3 4 24 25 26 27 28 1

CE

XO

XI

X2

X3

X5

X6

X7

DATA AO Al A2 A3 A4 A5

YO

Yl

IC9
74LS22106

Y3

Y6

Y7

MR

STB

10

18

17

16

13

100&
- J wv —

+ 12V

ICs lie. lid. AND 12
ARE CONFIGURED
SIMILARLY

100&
— wv —

+12V

>1M

OJ OUT #7

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 97

CIRCUIT CELLAR

C

f PB7[2>-
PB6[2>-

PORT B
"CONTROL BUS"

1>

IC1
74LS04

PBS £>-

PB4 O

PB3 O-

PB2 O-
PB1 \Z^

^ PBO O-

PORT A

"LED DATA

AND CROSSPOINT

ADDRESS BUS"

f PA7 O-
PA6 C>-
PA5 £>-

PA4 O"
p A3 O-
PA2 O-
PA1 £>-
^ PAO O-

^>

o*

I-5V

CE LEDS is

20

23

IC2
74LS154

Gl

X15
X14
X13
X12b-

Xll >
X10 >

X9 0-

X8 t>

X6 0-

X5 >
X4 >

X3 0-

XO

A,

N/C
N/C
N/C

.10

12

H5V
T20

17

15

13

11

IC3
74LS244

1A1
2A4
1A2
2A3
1A3
2A2
1A4
2A1

1Y1
2Y4
1Y2
2Y3
1Y3
2Y2
1Y4
2Y1

15 GND 2G

|1 |3Q I 19

16

12

-CZ> CROSSPOINT MUX STROBE
-O VIDEO ENABLE CE
-£~> AUDIO ENABLE CE

-C> ON/OFF DATA TO MUX

-O LED #12

-t~> LED #n
-O LED #10
-O LED #9

-O LED * 8

-O LED #7

-O LED #6

-O LED #5
-O LED #4
-£2> LED #3

-G> LED #2

■O LED #1

LED DISPLAY
STROBES

-0> A5 *)
-O A4
"O A3
-O A2
-O Al
-O A0
-O D7
-O D6
-O D5
-O 04
-O D3
■O 02
-O Dl
-O DO

>MUX ADDRESS DATA

) LED LATCH DATA

Figure 9: A circuit diagram of the microcomputer interface for the AVMUX.

98 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

CIRCUIT CELLAR

Listing 1: A simple BASIC-52 program to exercise the AVMUX.

80 REM PROGRAM TO SPECIFY DIRECT INPUT/OUTPUT AUDIO CHANNEL

85 REM INPUT AS IN#,OUT#J/0 ON/OFF AUDIO 0-7 CHANNELS

90 INPUT A.B.C

95 IFC = 1 THEN Q = 128

100 P1 =51200 : P2 = 51201 : P3 = 51202 : P4 = 51203

1 1 XBY(P4) = 1 37 : REM SET A&B AS OUTPUT AND C AS INPUT

1 1 5 REM PORT A IS ADDRESS AND PORT B IS CONTROL BUS

117 XBY(P2) = 32

120 S = (B*8) + A : REM CALCULATE MUX SWITCH NUMBER

122 PRINT S.Q

125 XBY(P1) = S + Q : REM SET ADDRESS AND ON/OFF BIT

1 35 XBY(P2) = 32 : XBY(P2) = 160: XBY(P2) = 32

150 GOTO 90

Listing 2: Another program like the one in listing I.

80 REM PROGRAM TO SPECIFY DIRECT INPUT/OUTPUT VIDEO CHANNEL

85 REM INPUT AS IN#,OUT#,l/0 ON/OFF VIDEO 0-7 CHANNELS

90 INPUT A.B.C

95 IF C = 1 THEN C = 128

100 P1 =51200 : P2 = 51201 : P3 = 51202 : P4 = 51203

1 1 XBY(P4) = 137 : REM SET A&B AS OUTPUT AND C AS INPUT

115 REM PORT A IS ADDRESS AND PORT B IS CONTROL BUS

117 XBY(P2) = 64

120 S = (B*8) + A : REM CALCULATE MUX SWITCH NUMBER

125 XBY(P1) = S + C : REM SET CHANNEL ADDRESS AND ON/OFF BIT

1 35 XBY(P2) m 64 : XBY(P2) = 192: XBY(P2) = 64

1 50 GOTO 90

STROBE

LED #N O-

D7 £>-
D6 \Z>~
D5 O-
D4 O-
D3 Q>-
D2 O-
Dl O-
D0 O-

14

13

^J

+ 5V

20

CLK
74LS374

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10

N/C

13

14

DP.
G

F
E
D
C
B
A

MAN74A LED
A

/77

Figure 10: A diagram of one of the AVMUX's LED circuits. There is one of
these for each of the output lines (eight video and four stereo audio).

Table I

: The values loaded into the

8-bit latch to produce a given number

on the LED display.

Display.

Latch Value in Decimal

63

1

6

2

91

3

79

4

102

5

109

6

124

7

7

8

127

9

103

OFF

After wiring up all those blasted
LEDs for a local display, 1 wondered
how I was going to see the results of
crosspoint entries made via one of
the remote-entry keypads. The ob-
vious solution was to attach a BCC-22
Term-Mite 80-character by 24-line
smart-terminal board (January and
February 1984) to the BCC-52's serial
port. As the controller makes deci-
sions and transmission-gate changes,
it displays them on the terminal board
in the form of a matrix or chart that
is easily read. The video output of the
BCC-22 board is then connected to
one of the eight inputs of the video
crosspoint switch. With the BCC-52
programmed to accept a specific key
press as a default command, the
AVMUX display could then be
directed to any or all video monitors
while remote programming is in pro-
cess. (See photo 3.)

Circuit Cellar Feedback

This month's feedback is on page 346.

Next Month

I'll build a real-time clock. ■

Editor's Note: Steve often refers to previous
Circuit Cellar articles. Most of these past ar-
ticles are available in book form from BYTE
Books, McGraw-Hill Book Company, POB
400. Hightstown. NJ 082 50.

Garcia s Circuit Cellar, Volume I covers articles
in BYTE from September 1977 through
November 1978. Volume II covers December
1978 through June 1980. Volume III covers July
1980 through December 1981. Volume IV
covers January 1982 through June 1983.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 99

Save the

Millions of IBM PCs and
compatibles are fighting for
their lives.

Because users like you
are demanding more and more
storage space. For bigger pro-
grams. For more applications.
For downloading from the main-
frame to the micro.

It's really more than a little
PC can handle.

Which is why more and
more of them are being replaced
by expensive XTs.

But now you can help
your PC survive in a rapidly
changing business environment

And save yourself (or
your company) the cost of buying
a new XT.

With Hardcard™

A 10 megabyte hard disk
drive on a card that makes your
PC* function exactly like an XT.

In fact, the only difference is that
Hardcard has a faster access
time than the XTs built-in drive.

It's also faster to install
than any other add-on drive.

Because everything is
compressed onto a single card
that quickly plugs into any
expansion slot inside the PC.
With no additional cable con-
nections. No external power
supply. No adapter cards to buy

And with Hardcard's
special installation software, you
can load the operating system
and be ready to install your
programs in minutes. Without
any outside help.

Hardcard also saves all
the money you've invested in soft-
ware. Because it runs all the
most popular programs exactly
like an XT would. With no extra
fuss or modification.

And its built-in Hardcard
Directory program lets you easily
access your most valued files and
programs at the touch of a key.

100 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

Plus Hardcard is the
only add-in drive that lets you
keep both your floppies up
and running.

As for reliability, there's
simply less to go wrong. In fact,
Hardcard has fewer parts than
any other drive. Which makes
it twice as reliable as the
XTs built-in
drive.

Y&t&ca

take it to your nearby autho-
rized service location, and you'll
get a replacement Hardcard
the same day

Best of all, Hardcard is
affordable enough to
save all the
PCs.

w s

■PW

Because
of Hardcard's superior
reliability, we can offer
you a warranty that
goes well beyond the
usual 90 days. We
give you a full year.
Should anything
go wrong within
the year, simply

^ j^^^ ^^r

TW

Inquiry 2 59

So see
Hardcard now at your
local computer dealer.
Or call Plus Development
Corp. for the dealer nearest
you: (408) 946-3700.
And do your part to save
these friendly, intelligent
little machines.

* Hardcard i s compatible with I B M P C . IB M P C X T, Compaq Portable, Compaq Plus,
AT&T PC 6300.

Plus and Hardcard are trademarks of Plus Development Corporation. IBM. IBM PC
and IBM PC XT are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.
Compaq Portable and Compaq Plus are trademarks of Compaq Computer Corp.
AT&T PC 6300 is a registered trademark of AT&T Information Systems, Inc.

Hardcard

from Plus

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 101

102 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

ILLUSTRATED BY PAUL MOCK

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

A SIMPL COMPILER
PART 3: EXTENSIONS

by Jonathan Amsterdam

Designing extensions that don't
interact in harmful ways

Last month, I talked
about how to implement
procedures and func-
tions for SIMPL-the
high-level language
whose compiler I have
been describing in these
pages. This month, 1 will discuss how to han-
dle user-defined types, arrays, strings, Ada-
style parameter modes, and open-array
parameters. Although these extensions do
not pose terribly challenging implemen-
tation problems, designing features so that
they don't interact in harmful and unex-
pected ways can be difficult. I hope that my
explanations of the design choices involved
will give you a better understanding of exist-
ing programming languages and will help
you design your own.

User-Defined Types

SIMPL has three built-in types: INTEGER,
CHAR, and BOOLEAN. Until now, the pro-
grammer had no way to construct other
types. The modifications I've made permit
the programmer to construct new types and
name them. I'll discuss the naming ap-
paratus first.

The syntax for type declarations is shown
in figure la. It is identical to Pascal's. The
type-declaration section begins with the
keyword TYPE and consists of declarations
of the form identifier = type. After a type

name is declared, it can be used in further
declarations of types or variables.

The ability to name types raises some im-
portant questions: When are two types con-
sidered equal? What operations are per-
mitted on new types? For example, consider
the declaration TYPE T = INTEGER. To
what extent can variables of type T be
treated as integers? Can we add or compare
them to each other or to integers?

One solution is to treat T as identical to
INTEGER; in this case, a type declaration
like the one above serves merely as docu-
mentation. A second solution is to consider
T a completely different type. Although T
variables could be assigned to and tested
for equality with each other (since these
operations can be defined for variables of
any type), integers could not be assigned
to or compared with them, nor would oper-
ations defined for other types be defined
for type T variables. This would render
declarations like the above utterly useless
unless some sort of coercion function were
provided to convert values of type T to type
INTEGER. Modula-2's solution of using the
type name as the coercion function lets you
add two variables x and y of type T by

(continued)
Jonathan Amsterdam is a graduate student at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial In-
telligence laboratory. He can be reached at 1643
Cambridge St. #34, Cambridge. MA 02138.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 103

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

writing INTEGER(x) + INTEGER^)
and to assign an integer value to a T
variable by writing x : = T(3).

My solution falls in between the two
just outlined. It is based on the idea
that what is meant by a declaration
like TYPE T = INTEGER is that values
of type T behave like integers but are
logically distinct from them. Any
operation that can be done on in-
tegers is valid on values of type T, but
you must use a coercion function to
mix types. So the addition above
could be written simply as x + y, but
the assignment would have to remain
as x : = T(3).

Compiling with
User-Defined Types

Several modifications have to be
made in the current SIMPL compiler
■to handle user-defined types. Most
important, the way the compiler rep-
resents types must be changed. The
current compiler uses three values to

represent the three possible types:
INTEGER, CHAR, and BOOLEAN.
These values are defined by using a
Modula-2 enumerated type: TYPE
typeType = (tlnteger, tChar, tBoolean).
(This is probably one of the more con-
fusing statements in the compiler. It
defines a Modula-2 type used by the
compiler to represent SIMPL types.)
This scheme won't do now that users
can define their own types, because
it's not possible to add to this list of
values when the compiler is running.
Instead, it makes more sense to put
types into the symbol table along with
other declarations. SIMPLs three built-
in types are inserted into the symbol
table when the compiler is initialized.
These special symbol-table entries,
which I'll call type objects, uniquely
identify the types used in the pro-
gram. The symbol-table entries of
variables and functions contain a
pointer to the appropriate type object
instead of containing a type value of

(a)

types

:= TYPE typeList

typeList

:: = typeDecl | typeDecl typeList

typeDecl

::•= typeName = type ;

typeName

::= id

(b)

type

::= INTEGER | CHAR | BOOLEAN | typeName |

ARRAY [ bounds ] OF type

bounds

::= integer .. integer

idOrlndex

:: = id | idOrlndex [ expr ]

assignStmt

:: = idOrlndex : = expr

factor

:: = ... | idOrlndex

(c)

.bounds

:= integer ,. integer | integer ,. integer , bounds

idOrlndex

:: = id | idOrlndex [ exprList ]

exprList

:: = expr | expr .exprList

(d)

formals

:: = ( formList )

form List

:: = formDecl | formDecl ; formList

formDecl

:: = modes idList : formType

modes

:: = empty | IN | OUT | IN OUT

idList

: = id | id , idList

formType

:: = typeName | ARRAY OF typeName

Figure I : The syntax of some extensions to SIMPL: (a) types, (b) arrays,
(c) syntactic sugar for arrays, and (d) formal declarations. The | means an "or."
An ellipsis indicates that other parts of the rule are omitted.

tlnteger, tChar, or tBoolean. r IWo vari-
ables are of the same type if and only
if they point to the same type object.

What information should a type ob-
ject contain? The type's name is
essential for looking it up in the sym-
bol table. Types can be defined as
local to routines, so the lexical level
at which the definition occurred is
also important. (INTEGER, CHAR,
and BOOLEAN can be considered to
be at lexical level 0.) The type's size-
that is, the amount of storage in VM2
words occupied by a variable of that
type— will prove useful. Finally, all
user-defined types must contain a
pointer to the base type, the type they
were defined in terms of. After com-
pilation of the declaration TYPE T =
INTEGER, the' type object for T
points to the type object for IN-
TEGER as its base type.

Some straightforward changes must
be made to the parser to handle type
declarations. The declarations them-
selves must be parsed and should
result in the creation of new type ob-
jects. When a type name is parsed
during a variable or function declara-
tion, the corresponding type object
must be looked up in the symbol
table and a pointer to it inserted in
the variable's or function's symbol-
table entry. The parsing of function
calls has to be changed so that coer-
cion functions are recognized: If the
name of the function being called is
actually a type name, the argument
expression is parsed as usual, but its
type is changed to that of the func-
tion name if the two types are com-
patible (i.e., the same size).

The final changes required to imple-
ment user-defined types occur in the
compiler's type-checking module: it is
here that the type-equivalence rules
I described above are actually put into
practice. To determine whether two
types are the same, the type checker
compares the type objects to see if
they are the same object. It needs to
make this sameness test for operands
of every binary operation, including
Boolean and relational operators, and
for assignment as well.

For testing of equality or inequality
and for assignment, it is sufficient that

104 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

the two types be the same. All other
operations have the additional re-
quirement that the operands be ap-
propriate to the operation. For exam-
ple, the arithmetic operators are de-
fined only for integers; the Boolean
operators AND, OR, and NOT for
Boolean values only; and the WRITE
and READ statements can be used
only with integers or characters. The
type checker uses a type's base type
to determine if the type is appropriate
to an operation, lb find the base type,
the type checker follows the type field
of the type object until it reaches one
of the built-in types. The type checker
may have to follow more than one
pointer because types can be de-
clared in terms of one another to ar-
bitrary depth, as the following dec-
larations illustrate:

TYPE

T = INTEGER;
U = T;
V = U;

The type-naming facility I've de-
scribed doesn't let you do any more
than rename existing types. This abili-
ty can still be useful; for instance, if
you are programming a banking sys-
tem, you may want to have dollar
values that behave like integers but
cannot be indiscriminately combined
with integers. Still, it would be nice to
be able to create completely new
types out of the built-in ones. 'types
like arrays, for example.

Arrays

Absolutely essential for most pro-
gramming jobs is some sort of ag-
gregate data structure, like an array or
a list. I have extended SIMPL to in-
clude arrays of arbitrary dimension.
The array indices must be integers,
and the bounds of the array must be
known at compile time. SIMPL arrays
are identical to Pascal arrays, except
that Pascal permits arrays to have in-
dices that range over any scalar type
except reals. The syntax for SIMPL ar-
rays is presented in figure lb, and
listing 1 shows the Sieve of Eratos-
thenes benchmark coded in SIMPL as
an example of the use of arrays.
| Editor's note: The Modula-2 source code for

Listing 1 ; The Sieve of Eratosthenes benchmark coded in SIMPL as an
illustration of the use of SIMPL arrays.

PROGRAM sieve;

{ Sieve of Eratosthenes program for computing prime numbers. }

VAR flags: ARRAY[0..500] OF BOOLEAN;
count, k, prime, iter, /':INTEGER;

BEGIN

iter : = 1 ;

WHILE iter <= 3 DO
count ; = 0;
/ : = 0;

WHILE/ <= 500 DO
flags[/] : = TRUE;
/':=/'+ 1 ;
END;
/ : = 0;

WHILE/ <= 500 DO
IF flags[/] THEN

prime :=/' + / + 3;
k := i + prime;
WHILE k < = 500 DO
flags[/<] : = FALSE;
k := k + prime;
END;

count := count + 1;
WRITE(prime); WRITE('\"');
END;

/':=/'+ 1 ;
END;

WRITE(count); WRITE('\"'); WRITE('\"');
iter : = iter + 1 ;

END;

END.

the listings in this article is available from
BYTEnet Listings at (617) 861-9764.| As
in Pascal, SIMPL functions cannot
return arrays.

Implementation of Arrays

Although a SIMPL array can have any
number of dimensions, I'll begin by
considering the implementation of
one-dimensional arrays. A one-dimen-
sional array is stored as a contiguous
sequence of memory locations. The
starting address of the array is the ad-
dress of its first element. If the array's
lower bound is zero, accessing an ar-
ray element is done by multiplying the
element's index by the size of the ele-
ment (that is, the number of VM2
words it occupies) and adding the
result to the starting address. If the ar-

ray's lower bound is other than zero,
it must be subtracted from the index
before doing the multiplication.

I've packaged all this computation
in a new VM2 instruction, AREF,
which takes as an argument the size
of an array element (measured in
VM2 words). It expects four words on
the stack, starting at the top: the
index, the upper bound, the lower
bound, and the starting address of the
array. AREF removes the four items
from the stack and checks that the
index is between the upper and lower
bounds, signaling an error if it isn't.
It then carries out the index calcula-
tion by subtracting the lower bound
from the index, multiplying the result
by the element size, and adding in the

[continued)

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE

105

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

starting address. The resulting value—
the address of the desired array ele-
ment—is then pushed onto the stack.

Compiling One-Dimensional
Arrays

Array types can be named in the type-
declaration section of a program:

TYPE alpha = ARRAY[1..10] OF
CHAR;

or can be used directly in a variable
declaration:

VAR beta:ARRAY[1..10] OF CHAR;

In both cases, the compiler creates a
type object when it sees the declara-
tion. In the first case, the type object
has a name: in the second case, it is
anonymous. The base type of an ar-
ray is the type of the array's elements;
in both cases above, it would be
CHAR. The size of the array is the
product of the size of its base type
(that is, the number of words oc-
cupied by a variable of that type) and
the number of elements in the array.
The type object for an array also
holds the array's upper and lower
bounds.

When anonymous declarations like
the one above are permitted, the
issue of type equivalence again rears
its ugly head. As I will describe below,
arrays can be assigned to one another
and passed as arguments. The types
involved must be compatible for
these operations to be legal. Is the

variable beta compatible with vari-
ables declared to be of type alpha?
Proponents of so-called structure
equivalence hold that it should be,
since both types have the same struc-
ture: a one-dimensional array of IO
characters. Those, like myself, who
favor the policy known as name
equivalence believe that two types are
distinct unless they have the same
name or, more precisely, refer to the
same type object. Since two different
type objects are involved in the above
declarations, the types are distinct. In
the following declarations:

VAR a, b: ARRAY[1..10] OF CHAR;
c: ARRAY[1..10] OF CHAR;

a and b share the same type object,
so they are compatible, but c is com-
patible with neither a nor b.

When an array declaration is
parsed, the compiler has to generate
code to allocate space for the array
at run time. For globally declared ar-
rays, the compiler outputs the variable
name as a label, followed by a
BLOCK directive with the number of
words required for the array. For ex-
ample, since the array named c above
occupies 10 VM2 words, the assem-
bler code generated for it would be
c: .BLOCK 10.

When an array is declared local to
a routine, the compiler must arrange
for its storage to be allocated when
the routine is called. The obvious
place for the array is on the stack with

Listing 2

: Code generated for the statement a[i]

:= a[/ + 1], where a is

defined as

an ARRAY[1..10] OF INTEGER.

PUSHC

a

starting address

PUSHC

1

lower bound

PUSHC

10

upper bound

PUSH

/

compute index

PUSHC

1

ADD

AREF

1

compute address of a[/+ 1]

CONTENTS

get the contents of a[/ + 1]

PUSHC

a

starting address

PUSHC

1

lower bound

PUSHC

10

upper bound

PUSH

/

index

AREF

1

compute address of a[i]

POP

put a[/ + 1] into a[i]

the other local variables. You may
recall that I allocate space for a local
variable on the stack with a PUSHC
instruction. Allocating an array in
this way would be quite inefficient
because it would take as many
PUSHC instructions as there are
words in the array. Instead, I will in-
troduce a new VM2 instruction,
SETSP (for set stack pointer), that
takes an integer argument that it uses
to decrement the stack pointer. Now,
a 20-word space on the stack can be
allocated with the instruction SETSP
20.

You can use array elements either
in an expression or on the left-hand
side of an assignment statement. Both
occur in the statement a[/]: = a[i + 1].
In both cases, the code generator
begins by producing code to push the
array's starting address and its
bounds. It then generates the code to
compute the index. An AREF instruc-
tion, which will put the array ele-
ment's address onto the stack, is then
output. At this point, the code for the
two cases differs. When an array ele-
ment appears in an expression, a
CONTENTS instruction is generated
to retrieve its value. When the array
element appears on the left-hand side
of an assignment statement, a POP
statement is generated to pop the
second word on the stack into the ad-
dress on top of the stack.

For global arrays, the variable name
is used to label the beginning of the
array in the compiler's assembly-lan-
guage output, so the name serves as
the array's starting address; if the ar-
ray a were declared globally as AR-
RAY[1..10] OF INTEGER, the code for
a[i] : = a[i + 1] would be as shown in
listing 2.

If a were declared locally to a rou-
tine, the compiler couldn't use the ar-
ray name to get its starting address
because local arrays are allocated on
the stack at run time. Instead, the
compiler uses another new instruc-
tion, ADDRL (address of local), to
compute the starting address of the
array. Given a difference in lexical
levels and a local variable's frame-
pointer offset as arguments, ADDRL

{continued)

106 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Alloy's Streamliner Series.

The best protection for your company's

past, present, and future.

The best protection for your personal
computer data storage needs is avail-
able today. From Alloy. Choose tape
only. Or combined disk and tape.
Either way, the Streamliner Series
provides the performance you expect
from the leader. At a remarkably
affordable price.

Alloy's FT-60 streaming tape back-
up subsystem gives you up to 60Mb
storage capacity and high-speed data
transfer. The SL-60 models give you
the same high quality tape unit
plus integral hard disk And you can
choose 20Mb or 41Mb formatted data
capacities.

With Alloy's Streamliner Series,
youll get the best protection for your
company's past, present, and future.
So call Alloy today at (617) 875-6100.

ALLOV

Computer Product, Inc.

100 Pennsylvania Avenue, Framingham, MA 01701 (617) 875-6100, TWX 710-346-0394
In Europe: ALLOY Computer Products (Europe) Ltd., Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England. Tel.: 0285 69571 Telex: 43340

Inquiry 14

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 107

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

You can copy whole
arrays with a single
assignment statement

calculates the address of the local and
puts it onto the stack. It computes the
address just as PUSHL and POPL do:
by following the static-pointer chain
for a number of times equal to the
lexical-level difference and then add-
ing the offset to the resulting frame-
pointer value. If array a were declared
locally each of the two PUSHC a in-
structions in listing 2 would be re-
placed by an ADDRL instruction.

An array name can be used in only
two places in the program to stand for
the entire array: in an assignment
statement and as an argument to a
routine. In all other cases, the array
must be accessed element by ele-
ment.

It is possible to copy whole arrays
with a single assignment statement. If
the statement a : = b occurs, and a
and b are arrays of the same type, the
compiler generates code to copy all
the elements of b into a. I will once
again add a VM2 instruction, COPY,
to do this. COPY is actually a very
general instruction. It expects the top
of the stack to contain the number of
words to be moved, the next value on
the stack to be the destination ad-
dress, and the third stack value to be
the source address. It copies the
specified" number of words from
source to destination. Since the
SIMPL compiler needs to move only
nonoverlapping areas of memory,
COPY does not check for or correct-
ly handle overlapping regions.

An entire array can be passed as an
argument to a routine if the types of
the argument and the routine's formal
parameter are the same. Because of
the way I defined type equality above,
you can't declare a formal parameter
like

PROCEDURE P(a:ARRAY[1..10] OF
INTEGER);

because the array declaration results

in the creation of a new type object,
so no variable has the same type as
a. Since the types of corresponding
formal and actual parameters must be
identical, it would be impossible to
make a legal call to procedure P. You
have to use a type name to declare
the formal, a:

TYPE intArray = ARRAY[1..10] OF

INTEGER;

PROCEDURE P(a:intArray);

Now, any variable of type intArray can
be passed to procedure P.

This is an interesting demonstration
of how seemingly separate features
can interact. My definition of type
equality, the ability to pass arrays as
parameters to routines, and the abili-
ty to name types are three separate
aspects of the language, but you can't
have the first two without the third.

Multidimensional Arrays

It may seem that, with only one-di-
mensional arrays covered, there is
much yet to be done to handle the
general case of arrays of many dimen-
sions. Somewhat remarkably, all the
array machinery I've been discussing
will work just fine with arrays of more
than one dimension. A look at the ar-
ray syntax in figure lb shows it is
possible to declare a two-dimensional
array of characters by writing

VAR window: ARRAY[1..10] OF
ARRAY [1..10] OF CHAR;

since ARRAY[1..10] OF CHAR is a
valid type declaration and can appear
after the OF. The array syntax lets you
access array elements by writing the
indices one after the other, each
enclosed in square brackets, like win-
dow^] [4]. It remains only to add
some syntactic sugar to sweeten the
pill of having to write arrays of arrays
of arrays ... My compiler accepts the
usual syntax for multidimensional ar-
rays, as shown in figure lc, but the
parser just treats it as an abbreviation
for the above syntax. For instance, the
array window could be defined by
VAR window: ARRAY[1..10,1..10] OF
CHAR and accessed with window[3,
4]. It's always a joy to discover that
what appeared at first to be a new

and complex feature is nothing more
than a syntactic variant of what you
already have.

Strings

With arrays in place, you can imple-
ment character strings as arrays of
characters. It's a straightforward mat-
ter to write routines to read and write
strings from the terminal, and you can
embed strings within your program by
assigning one character at a time to
an array:

s[1]:= T; s[2]:= 'e'; s[3]:= 'd';
s[4]:= V; s[5]:= 'o'; s[6]:= 'iT;
s[7]:= 's';

But this last operation is unforgivably
tedious. It would be helpful to endow
the language with facilities for string
manipulation. As a first step in this
direction, I have added string con-
stants to SIMPL, which are sequences
of characters enclosed in double
quotes; they can be assigned to char-
acter arrays or passed directly as
arguments to routines.

Implementation of Strings

String constants are fairly easy to im-
plement for the SIMPL language
because the VM2 assembler accepts
string constants with exactly the same
syntax; so the constants can be com-
piled without change. The compiler
outputs a string constant preceded by
a label, which can be used to refer to
the string, and followed by a zero to
terminate the string with an ASCII
NUL Routines can use this NUL to
determine when they have reached
the string's end. A string assignment
like s : = "better", where s is a char-
acter array, is implemented with
COPY. The compiler must determine
if the array is shorter than the string
constant; if so, it should signal an
error. Also, the string constants are
kept separate from the routine's ex-
ecutable code, so the machine will not
try to execute the string constants.
Passing a string constant as an argu-
ment is similar to passing an array. If
the type of the corresponding formal
parameter is an array of the same size
as or larger than the string constant,

[continued)

108 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 176—*

THAT IS OUT OF THIS WORLD

$ 389

*549

MODEL 2000 20MHz
DUAL TRACE

MODEL 3500 35MHz
DUAL TRACE DELAYED SWEEP

AT A DOWN TO EARTH PRICE

At last! Truly affordable test equipment with no compromise in design, and features
you would expect to find only on oscilloscopes costing hundreds of dollars more! JDR
Instruments presents two, new, high-performance models backed by a two year
warranty and technical support which is only a phone call away. Perfect for the
technician or advanced hobbyist, both models feature Dual Trace capability and a
variety of operating and triggering modes, including CH-B Subtract and X-Y operation.

MODEL 2000 has a 20 MHz I ■■■ MODEL 3500 features a 35

bandwidth and 20 calibrated | R^T^p] MHz bandwidth and exceptional

sweeps ranging from .2s to .2/uts. W ^Tf&f&m \ 1mV/DIV sensitivity. Delayed

A convenient built-in component |\1^J sweep and variable holdoff allow

tester provides additional ^BPiHfifi^^H stable viewing of complex

diagnostic power. ggQggQ^g| | wa veforms.

ORDER TOLL FREE
800-538-5000
800-662-6279 ( ca)

JDR INSTRUMENTS

1224 South Bascom Avenue
San Jose, California 95128 (408) 995-5430

COPYRIGHT 1985 JDR INSTRUMENTS EARTH PHOTO COURTESY OF NASA,
THE JDR INSTRUMENTS LOGO IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF JDR MiCRODEVICES. JDR INSTRUMENTS IS A TRADEMARK OF JDR MICRODEVICES.

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

the call is valid. I now turn to the
parameter-passing mechanism itself.

Ins and Outs

of Parameter Passing

Entire arrays (as well as string con-
stants, which can be treated as arrays
in this context) can be passed as argu-
ments to routines. Should an array
argument be copied, or should a
pointer to the array be passed in-
stead? These two choices correspond
to the two most common parameter-
passing schemes: call-by-value and
call-by-reference. In the call-by-value
scheme, only the value of the argu-
ment is passed, not a reference to the

actual argument, so any modification
of the argument by the callee will not
affect the original.

When a variable is passed using
call-by-reference, the callee gets a
pointer to that variable, so the vari-
able's contents can be modified. Now,
here's the rub: Call-by-reference
should be used when you plan to
modify a variable inside a routine. But
if you aren't doing this, call-by-value
is the right choice since it ensures that
what is being passed won't acciden-
tally be modified. Call-by-value is
much less efficient for large objects
like arrays because it requires a copy
of the entire array to be made. The

A. To pass an argument A to a formal parameter F:

1. If A is an array:

a. If F is an open-array parameter, push the HIGH and LOW bounds of A;

b. Push As starting address.

2. If A is a scalar:

a. If F has mode IN, push the value of A;

b. Otherwise, push the address of A.

B. To store the top of the stack into a variable V:

1. If V is an array element:

a. Push the address of the array containing V;

b. Push the array's bounds;

c. Push the value of the index expression;

d. Use an AREF instruction to put the address of V on the stack;

e. Use a POP instruction.

2. If V is a scalar variable:

a. If V is a global variable, use a POPC instruction;

b. If V is a local variable, use a POPL instruction;

c. If V is an OUT or IN OUT formal:

(1) Push Vs address;

(2) Use a POP instruction.

C. To put the contents of a variable V on the stack:

1

If V is an array element:

a. Use an AREF sequence, as in B.1.a-B.ld above;

b. Use a CONTENTS instruction.

If V is a global variable, use a PUSH instruction;

If V is a local variable or IN formal, use a PUSHL instruction;

If V is an IN OUT formal:

a. Push Vs address;

b. Use a CONTENTS instruction.

D. To push the address of a variable V (including arrays) onto the stack:

1. If V is a global variable, use a PUSHC instruction;

2. If V is a local variable, use an ADDRL instruction;

3. If V is a scalar formal with mode IN, use an ADDRL instruction;

4. If V is any other kind of formal, use a PUSHL instruction.

Figure 2: Rules for manipulating variables in SIMPL. These rules are used by
the code generator. They assume that mode-compatibility errors (such as an
attempt to store into a formal of mode IN) have been caught by the type checker.

practical result is that arrays are
almost never passed by value. Neither
method seems a satisfactory choice
of calling mechanism. Indeed, it looks
like a classic trade-off between con-
siderations of efficiency and good
programming style: Either write good
code and take your lumps with the
copies or be fast and a little dirty.

The designers of the Ada program-
ming language provide a solution to
this dilemma. It involves separating
the implementation of the parameter-
passing mechanism from the way it
appears to the programmer. The
terms call-by-reference and call-by-
value describe implementations. As a
programmer, you have three ways in
which you might want to treat an
argument to a routine: you want the
routine to use the argument's value
but not to modify it; you want the
routine to transmit a value back to the
caller through the argument, but it is
not necessary to examine its value; or
you want the routine to both examine
and modify the argument. In Ada, if
a formal parameter is followed by the
keyword IN, its value can be examined
but not altered; if it is followed by the
keyword OUT. it can be assigned to
but not examined; and the keywords
IN OUT allow both. The default is IN.
A formal is said to have a mode of IN,
OUT, or IN OUT. The Ada-style pa-
rameter-passing mechanism can now
always pass arrays and string con-
stants by reference and leave it to the
compiler to check for their proper use
inside the routine.

The designers of Ada's parameter-
passing mechanism have made splen-
did use of a powerful idea: Let the
compiler do the work. Call-by-value
for a large structure is little more than
expensive run-time protection against
modifying the structure. By perform-
ing the checks for modification at
compile time instead, you can elimi-
nate a great deal of inefficiency

Implementing
parameter passing

Only a few modifications need to be
made to the compiler to handle the
IN-OUT parameter-passing mech-
anism. The parser must deal with the

110 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

occurrence of IN and OUT keywords
in the list of formal parameters (see
figure Id), and a field must be added
to symbol-table entries to record -the
mode of formal parameters. Each oc-
currence of a formal must be checked
to make sure it conforms to the for-
mal's mode. The rules are simple: IN
formals cannot occur on the left-hand
side of an assignment statement or as
arguments to a routine whose corre-
sponding formal has modes OUT or
IN OUT. (This includes the built-in
READ procedure, whose formals are
considered to have mode OUT.) OUT
formals cannot occur in expressions
or as arguments to a routine whose
corresponding formal has modes IN
or IN OUT (including WRITE, whose
formals are IN). Formals of mode IN
OUT can occur anywhere.

The code generator needs to be
changed so that the right code se-
quences are generated for accessing
variables and passing arguments. The
code generator's rules are sum-
marized in figure 2. It may help you
to wade through the confusing mass
of instructions if you remember that
everything is passed by reference (i.e.,
a pointer is passed) except expres-
sions and scalar (nonarray) variables
passed to IN formals, which are
passed by value.

Open-Array Parameters

Users of Pascal quickly discovered
that language's inflexibility with array
parameters. Pascal insists that the
types of the formal and actual param-
eters match. If a Pascal sort routine
were defined to sort arrays of 10 in-
tegers, it could accept only such ar-
rays and no others; the same routine
could not be used to sort an array of
1 1 integers, even though the sorting
algorithm itself might pose no limita-
tions on the length of the array to be
sorted. In Pascal, it is impossible to
write general-purpose routines that
can work with arrays of arbitrary size.
Writing general-purpose string-han-
dling routines is likewise impossible
in Pascal: strings longer than the size
of the routine's formal parameter can-
not be handled.

(continued)

Listing 3: (a) A SIMPL program illustrating the use of strings, parameter
modes, and open-array parameters, [b) VM2 assembly-language code produced by
the compiler from the program in (a).

(a) PROGRAM censor;

TYPE string = ARRAY[1..80] OF CHAR;

VAR a:string;

PROCEDURE xout(s:IN OUT ARRAY OF CHAR);

{ Replaces all characters in s with xs. String terminated by end of array or an

ASCII NUL (character code zero) }
VAR /-INTEGER;
BEGIN

/ : = LOW(s);

WHILE / <= HIGH(s) AND s[i] < > CHAR(O) DO
s[/] : = Y;
/ ;= / + 1;
END;
END;

BEGIN

a : = "This is a string";

xout(a);
END.

KUf BRANCH

censor

a: .BLOCK 80

xout:

SETSP

1

PUSHL

0, 4

LOW

POPL

0, -1

/

L1:

PUSHL

0, -1

/

PUSHL

0, 5

HIGH

LSSEQL

BREQL

L3

PUSHL

0,3

s

PUSHL

0, 4

LOW

PUSHL

0, 5

HIGH

PUSHL

0, -1

/

AREF

1

CONTENTS

PUSHC

NOTEQL

BRANCH

L4

L3:

PUSHC

L4:

BREQL

L2

PUSHC

'x

PUSHL

0, 3

s

PUSHL

0, 4

LOW

PUSHL

t 5

HIGH

PUSHL

0, -1

/

AREF

1

POP

PUSHL

t -1

PUSHC

1

. ADD

POPL

0, -1

BRANCH

L1

L2:

RETURN

3

censor:

PUSHC

L5

PUSHC

a

PUSHC

17

COPY

PUSHC

80

PUSHC

1

PUSHC

a

CALL

.xout,

HALT

L5:

"This is a

string"

FEBRUARY 1 986 • BYTE

Inquiry 316

The

Switchboard:

EnGarde™

EnGarde™ is the surge suppres-
sor with the added protection of a
master switch that controls your
computer and its peripherals. It
quickens start-up time and reduces
wear on your computer and peri-
pheral ON/OFF switches.

An LED grounded outlet indi-
cator and an anti-static touch pad
are also built into EnGarde™ 1

EnGarde™ also protects your
computer from power surges caused
by changes in electrical loads
and other electrical disturbances.
It includes a limited five-year
warranty

EnGarde™ is a product of Sys-
tems Control, manufacturer of
power protection systems for the
nation's utility companies.

Askyourdealer for the total pro-
tection of EnGarde™ Or call toll
free 1-800-451-6866 to order (in
Michigan call collect 9#6/774-0440).
If unsatisfied, return EnGarde™
within 30 days for a
frill refund.

TM

EnGarde

A product of Systems Control, a division of MJ. Electric, Inc.

PROGRAMMING PROJECT

Open-array parameters
are so easy to
implement its a
wonder that more
languages don't use
them: two extra pushes
are all you need.

Modula-2 's open-array parameters
corrected the deficiency. If the words
ARRAY OF CHAR, for example, oc-
cur in a formal-parameter declaration,
that formal can be bound to an array
of any size, provided it is a one-dimen-
sional array of characters. The ARRAY
OF. . . construct can be used with
any type name, even one that the pro-
grammer previously defined. If a
Modula-2 formal parameter is de-
clared with ARRAY OF, then whatever
the lower bound of the actual param-
eter, the formal parameter's lower
bound is zero; its upper bound is
available by using the built-in function
HIGH applied to the formal param-
eter. I will adopt Modula-2's syntax for
open-array parameter declarations,
but I don't like the way Modula-2
alters the bounds. So in SIMPL, the
bounds of the formal parameter are
identical to those of the actual and
can be accessed with the built-in func-
tions LOW and HIGH.

Implementation of
Open-Array Parameters

Open-array parameters are so easy to
implement, it's a wonder more lan-
guages don't use them. When an ar-
ray is passed to a formal declared as
an open array, the bounds of the ar-
ray are pushed onto the stack in ad-
dition to the array's starting address.
When compiling a formal-parameter
declaration, the compiler assigns
frame-pointer offsets to the two
bounds as well as to the array's start-
ing address. Any time a bound is

needed inside the routine, the com-
piler uses a PUSH L instruction to put
it on the top of the stack. The built-in
functions LOW and HIGH merely
compile directly into the appropriate
PUSHL instructions. A minor interac-
tion occurs with the whole-array-as-
signment feature. If an array assign-
ment involves an open array, the com-
piler can't know the array's size at
compile time. Yet it must generate a
COPY instruction and push the
number of words to copy onto the
stack. The solution is for the compiler
to generate code that computes the
minimum of the two arrays' sizes at
run time. For this purpose, I've added
a new VM2 instruction, MIN, that
pops the top two integers off the
stack and pushes their minimum back
onto the stack.

Conclusion

To give you an idea of what the com-
piled code looks like for the features
I've been discussing, I have provided
in listing 3 a SIMPL program that uses
strings, parameter modes, and open-
array parameters.

When I chose the extensions to in-
clude in this project, I picked what
seemed to me to be the most essen-
tial and easiest to implement of hun-
dreds of possible features. If you've
understood the project up to now, it
shouldn't be difficult for you to add
other common programming-lan-
guage features to SIMPL, like real
numbers, records, FOR loops, and so
on. However, there may be some ad-
vanced features whose implementa-
tion gives you pause. Hence the
following offer.

Think of your favorite high-level-lan-
guage feature. It may already be a
part of a programming language, or
it may be some creature bred of your
own imagination; no matter. Send it
to me, either on BIX (BYTE Informa-
tion Exchange) or by U.S. Mail. In a
future article, I will examine a hand-
ful of the most interesting sugges-
tions. For each feature, I will either
describe an implementation or ex-
plain why, in my opinion, no decent
programming language should pro-
vide the feature. ■

112 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

See for Yourself

Wfry

• • •

%.

%

«? %

"BetterBASIC may be the best of all
BASIC programming worlds."

PC Magazine's Editor's Choice, Richard Aarons, PC Magazine, October 1985

And How. . .

"Summit Software Technology's BetterBASIC is
potentially one of the most powerful languages

on the market."

Art Huston, BYTE Magazine, October 1985 © McGraw-Hill, inc.

I'd like you to see
for yourself why
I recommend
BetterBASIC

Take this coupon to your nearest
^mm RADIO SHACK COMPUTER CENTER or

RADIO SHACK COMPUTER CENTER PLUS

Ik. X. to receive your

- Free Demo Disk

Contains a tutorial, a demo, a comparison to MS-BASIC

and allows you to use an abbreviated form of BetterBASIC.

It also contains a 60 page on-line mini manual.

Offer expires April 30, 1986.

BetterBASIC Version 2.0

"I Wrote It, And I Recommend It."

"BetterBASIC has evolved into a programming environment which is
completely compatible with GW BASIC and PC BASIC A when running on

IBM PCs and compatibles. Now you can easily load your old BASIC

programs into BetterBASIC. BetterBASIC gives programmers use of the full

memory of the computer and a structured language with true procedures and

functions — like PASCAL and C. I wrote BetterBASIC and I recommend it. "

Ivar Wold, President • Summit Software Technology Inc. * Norwood, MA

ACCESS FULL MEMORY—

BetterBASIC accesses the
full memory of the com-
puter enabling you to
overcome Microsoft's 64K
barrier.

INTERACTIVE
COMPILER— BetterBASIC
compiles to an intermediate
code giving you five to six
times the speed of tradi-
tional BASICS. There is
immediate feedback on
line entry

COMPATIBLE— Version 2
of BetterBASIC is GW BASIC,
PC-BASICA compatible
when running on IBM
PCs. BetterBASIC is easy to learn because
the syntax is the same.
STRUCTURE— Create well-organized
programs using procedures and functions
that are easily identified and understood.
NOT COPY PROTECTED— Install
BetterBASIC on your hard disk. BetterBASIC
is licensed to the programmer, so you can
compute at work and at home using the
same copy of BetterBASIC.
USER DEFINED KEYWORDS— The
BetterBASIC language can be extended by
adding your own procedures and functions
to the language as keywords.
RUNTIME SYSTEM— Creates stand-alone
EXE. files. Developers can distribute their
programs written in BetterBASIC without
royalties.

SAMPLE DISK— Contains a
tutorial, a demo, and allows
you to use an abbreviated
form of BetterBASIC. It also
contains a 60 page on-line
mini manual.

AND MORE— Such as DOS
and BIOS ROM calls,
Chaining, Overlays, Local
and Global Variables,
Recursion — Graphics and
Windows— You can define
up to five windows.
Optional 8087/80287
Math Chip Support.
LIBRARIES— Write
reusable code.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT—
Available to all registered users.
BetterBASIC Runs on IBM PC, XT, AT and
all IBM-compatibles. Ask your local dealer
for BetterBASIC or call 1-800-225-5800.

In Canada call 416-469-5244

Also

available for

the

Tandy 1000, 1200 and 3000 ;

it Tandy/Radio Shack

stores.

PRICES:

Better BASIC

$199

8087/80287 Math Module

$99

Runtime System

$250

Sample Disk with Tutorial

$10

Because It's The Best.

Inquiry 314

Summit Software Technology, IncI"

106 Access Road, Norwood, MA 02062

MasterCard, Visa, Checks, Money Order, C.O.D. accepted and P.O. on approval.
BetterBASIC is a registered trademark of Summit Software Technology Inc.
IBM PC, XT, AT, are registered trademarks oflmernaiional Business Machines Corp. Tandy is a registered trademark of Tandy Corp.
(If you're using BetterBASIC and would like to be featured in one of our ads, please write to the Director of Advertising at Summit.]

B35

The right prices. The right

IBM HARDWARE

AST List Ours

SixPak Plus 64K $395 $239

SixPak Plus, 384K, S/P/CC .... $895 $269
Advantage Multif Brd for AT. . . $595 $449

CENTRAL POINT

PC Option Board $ 95 $ 81

COMX

130 Watt Power Supply $179 $ 93

EVE REX

The Edge. Color /Mono Board . . $399 $269

HAUPPAGE (HCW)

8087 Chip $175 $125

80287 Fast-5 Chip $295 $239

HERCULES

Color Card with Parallel Port . . $245 $165
Mono Graphics Card $499 $319

IMSI

PC Mouse with Paintbrush $220 $129

INTEL

Above Board 64K for PC $395 $299

Above Board 128K for AT $595 $449

KENSINGTON

Masterpiece Plus $180 $129

KEYTRONIC Keyboards

KB5151 or KB5151 Jr $255 $189

MICROSOFr

Mouse $195 $125

MOUSE SYSTEMS

PC Mouse with Paint $220 $145

Mouse with Software (Jr) $220 $138

PERSYST

PC Mono Board w/Par Port . . . $250 $159
Color Board $210 $139

QUADRAM

Quadboard no RAM to 384K . . . $295 $195
Quadboard 384K S/P/CC/G . . . $795 $279
Quadcolor 1 Board 4 colors .... $295 $175

RACORE

Expansion Chassis (Jr) $675 $389

128K Expansion Board (Jr) .... $275 $152

TALLTREE

JRAM II board $219 $159

JRAM 111 256K Board $399 $309

TECMAR

Jr. Captain $395 $309

TITAN

PC Accelerator 128K $795 $595

VIDEO 7

Mono Graphics Card $250 $179

MGC with Parallel Port $300 $215

VEGA Board IBM EGA Comp... $599 $429

MODEMS

HAYES

Micromodem He (Apple) $199 $149

Transet 1000 Comm. Buffer . . . $399 $309
Smartmodem 1200B (IBM Int.) . $549 $379
Smartmodem 1200 (External) .. $599 $419
2400 Modem (External) $899 $619

PROMETHEUS

ProModem 1200A (Apple) ..... $449 $329

VENTEL

PC Halfcard (IBM Internal) $549 $389

DISKETTES

CONROY-LAPOINTE DISKETfES™

10 ea SS/SD 35 trk (Apple) . . .
100/1000 ea SS/SD, 35 trk . . .

10 ea SS/DD 3.5" (Mac)

50/100 ea SS/DD 3.5"

10 ea DS/DD 40 trk (IBM) ...
100/1000 ea DS/DD 40 trk . . .
10 ea DS/HD 96 TP1 (1BM-AT)

$ 13

$ 99/669

$ 25

$115/235

$ 16

$119/799

$ 29

100 ea DS/HD 96 TP1 (1BM-AT) $269

GENERIK

10/100 SS/SD 35 TRK (Apple) . $ 8/75
10/100 DS/DD 40 TRK (IBM) . . $ 10/ 79
10/100 DS/HD 96 TP1 (AT) .... $ 27/249

IBM SOFTWARE

ASHTONTATE List Ours

Framework 11 $695 $415

dBase III $695 $395

dBase II (req. PC DOS & 128K). $495 $305

BORLAND

Turbo Editor Toolbox $ 65 $ 40

Turbo GameWorks $ 70 $ 40

Turbo New Pack $ 95 $ 50

Superkey/Sidekick Package $125 $ 65

Turbo Holiday Pack $125 $ 69

Turbo Jumbo Pack $245 $130

Reflex: The Analyst $ 99 $ 59

BOURBAK1

1 dir $ 95 $ 62

BPI

Gen. Acctg. AR, AP, or PR ... . $595 $365

BREAKTHROUGH

Timeline $495 $295

CENTRAL POINT

Copy I] PC $ 40 $ 22

PC Tools $ 40 $ 22

DIGITAL RESEARCH

CP/M 86

Gem Draw

DOW JONES

Spreadsheet Link or Market Mgr.
Market Analyzer

FUNK SOFTWARE

Sideways NEW VERSION!

HARVARD

Total Project Manager

HOWARD SOFr

1986 Tax Preparer

HUMAN EDGE

Mind Prober

INFOCOM

Cornerstone

LIFETREE

Volkswriter Deluxe . . .

LIVING VIDEOTEXT

Think Tank

LOTUS

1-2-3 NEW VERSION

Symphony

Symphony Report Writer

MAGNUM COMPUTER

Fastrak, RAMdisk & Spooler .

MICROPRO

Easy

WordStar

WordStar 2000 Plus

MICRORIM

R:Base 5000

Extended Report Writer .

R:Base Clout

MICROSOFr

QuickBASIC

Windows

Macro Assembler

Access

Word

MICROSTUF

Crosstalk XV]

MULTIMATE

Multimate

Advantage requires 128K

PETER NORTON

Norton Utilties

POLYTRON

Polywindows

ROSESOFT

Prokey

SATELLITE (SSI)

WordPerfect NEW VERSION!

SOFTWARE PUBLISHING

PFS: Write, File or Graph . .

. $100 $ 64
. $150 $ 95

$249 $159
$349 $229

. $ 60 $ 42

. $495 $295

. $295 $199

. $ 50 $ 29

. $495 $309

. $295 $159

.$195 $109

. $495 $329
. $695 $449
. $150 $125

. $50 $ 39

. $150 $ 99
. $350 $189
. $595 $295

. $695 $385
. $150 $ 92
. $249 $133

. $ 99 $ 69
. $ 95 $ 69
. $150 $ 99
. $250 $169
.$375 $239

. $190 $110

. $495 $229
. $595 $295

. $100 $ 56

. $ 85 $ 45
. $130 $ 80
. $495 $229
. $140 $ 84

APPLE
HARDWARE

CCS List Ours

7711 or 7710-A Ser. Card $115 $ 95

CPS/EASTSIDE

Wild Card II Copier $140 $ 79

COMX

16K RAM Card (1 Yr Ltd Wty) . $119 $ 39

KENSINGTON

System Saver Fan $ 90 $ 65

KOALA

Muppet Keys $ 80 $ 44

Touch Tablet $130 $ 75

MICRO-SCI

80 CoU64K Card He $179 $ 89

A2 Disk Drive, 143K $269 $159

MICROSOFr

Z80 Softcard II, 64K $425 $295

ORANGE MICRO

Grappler Plus (Par.Card) $145 $ 72

Hot Link S-P Cable lie $ 70 $ 44

TEAC

T40 Half Ht Disk Drive $249 $149

TITAN

Accelerator lie $319 $229

128K RAM Card $329 $149

VIDEO 7

V Color lie $130 $ 89

V Color lie $250 $169

APPLE
SOFTWARE

ADVANCED LOGIC SYS. (ALS)

Word or List Handler $ 80 $ 36

ASHTONTATE

dBase 11 (req. CP/M) $495 $305

BEAGLE BROTHERS

GPLE or Alpha Plot $ 50 $ 27

Apple Mechanic or 10 Silver ... $ 30 $ 19
Many more in stock! CALL

BORLAND

Turbo Pascal (req. CP/M) $ 70 $ 36

Turbo Toolbox $ 55 $ 30

BPI

AR, AP, PR, or 1NV $395 $240

BRODERBUND

Karateka $ 35 $ 25

The Print Shop $ 50 $ 31

Print Shop w/Refill $ 65 $ 39

CENTRAL POINT

Copy II Plus Bit Copier $ 40 $ 22

FUNK

Sideways $ 60 $ 37

INFOCOM

Zork 1, 11, or III $ 40 $ 29

LIVING VIDEOTEXT

Think Tank $145 $ 89

MICROPRO

WordStar w/Starcard $495 $265

WordStar Professional $495 $265

MICROSOFr

Typing Tutor I] $ 25 $ 17

Many more in stock CALL

MICROSTUF

Crosstalk $195 $109

MONOGRAM

Dollars & $ense 11 + , e $100 $ 59

Dollars & $ense 128K $120 $ 69

ORIGIN

Ultima 111 $ 60 $ 39

Ultima IV $ 64 $ 44

We carry thousands more
products than are listed here.
If you don't see what you
are looking for, call!

SATELLITE (SSI) List Ours

WordPerfect NEW! $179 $115

SIMON & SCHUSTER

Typing Tutor HI $ 50 $ 33

SOFTWARE PUBLISHING PFS Series

File, Write, Graph or Report . . . $125 $ 79

SPECTRUM HOLOBYTE

GATO (req. 128K) $ 40 $ 25

SUBLOGIC

Flight Simulator II $ 50 $ 30

MACINTOSH

AEGIS

Challenger or Pyramid $ 50 $ 37

ASSIMILATION

Numeric Turbo CALL

Mac Port Adaptor $ 79 $ 59

BORLAND

Sidekick (copiable) $ 85 $ 45

CENTRAL POINT

Copy 11 Mac $ 40 $ 22

HABA SYSTEMS

400K Disk Drive $449 $339

800K DS/DD Disk Drive $599 $489

LIVING VIDEOTEXT

Think Tank $145 $ 92

LOTUS

Jazz $595 $389

MICROSOFT

Multiplan, Word or File $195 $125

Fortran $295 $199

Excel $395 $259

Business Pak $595 $395

PRINTERS

ARBO

Parallel Cable (IBM)

EPSON

LX80 100 cps, 16 cps NLQ . .
FX85 160 cps, 32 cps NLQ . .
FX185 160 cps, 32 cps, 15" ..
LQ1500 200 cps, 67 cps LQ . .
Parallel Interface for LQ1500

OKIDATA

Okimate 20, 182, 84

92, 192,193, 2410 Pacemark ..

PANASONIC

P1092 180 cps

P1093 180 cps 15"

P3151 22 cps Daisywheel ....

STAR MICRONICS

SG10 120 cps, 30 cps NLQ....
SD10 120 cps, 40 cps NLQ, 10"

JUKI

6300 40 cps Daisywheel

MONITORS

AMDEK

300G 12" Green Composite . . .
300 A 12" Amber Composite . .
310A 12" Amber TTL (IBM) . .
Color 500 Composite or RGB .

PRINCETON

MAX-12 12" Amber TTL (IBM)

HX-12 12" Color RGB

HX-12e RGB for IBM-EGA ....

. $ 36 $ 25

. $299 $249
. $499 $389
. $699 $539
. $1295 $995
. $100 $ 79

. LOW
. PRICES

. $599 $349
. $699 $469
. $659 $439

. $299 $249
$449 $379

. $895 $729

ZENITH

ZVM-1220 12" Amber Comp..
ZVM-1230 12" Green Comp. .
ZVM-1240 & ZVM-135

. $179 $119
.$199 $129
.$230 $159
. $525 $319

. $249 $179
$795 $445
, $785 $559

. $159 $109
. $159 $109
SAVE

ORDERING INFORMATION & TERMS

Mail to: 12060 S. W. Garden Place, Portland OR 97223 • Include telephone number • We immediately honor cashiers checks,
money orders, Fortune 1000, and Government checks • Personal and other company checks allow 20 days to clear • Advertised prices
reflect a 3% discount for cash, so add 3% for credit card purchases • We ship Federal Express Standard Air • U.S. and Puerto Rico
add 3% ($5 minimum) 'Canada add 12% ($15 min)» Foreign add 18% ($25 min)»APO, FPO other U.S. Territories add 6% ($10 min)»
All prices, availability and specifications subject to change without notice • All sates final* We do not guarantee compatibility • You
must call lor R. A. number to return defective goods.

CONROY-LAPOINTE COMPUTER STORES 3 Locations. Retail Sales Only. Store Prices May Vary.
San Francisco, CA • 415-982-6212 • Across From The Pyramid On Washington St Near Montgomery
Portland, OR • 503-620-5595 • Business Park 217 In Tigard, At Intersection of Hwys 217 & 99W
Seattle, WA • 206-455-0206 • Belgate Plaza In Bellevue, 2 Blocks North Of Bellevue Square

"We'll give you the best service anywhere"

114 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

products. The right choice.

B35

Internal
Hard Drives

10 meg s 5 $389

with controller *-*

20 meg si, $489

with controller «-*
Fast access time beats the standard IBM drive by 30%. 90 day limited warranty.

Control Data •
Floppy Drives

HalfHt.sr.$ 75
Full Ht. s;$ 119

360K Half -Height for AT $95 Call for quantity prices. 30 day limited warranty.

ComX/Irwin •
Tape Backup
System

10 meg^ 5 $495

Plugs right on to your IBM floppy drive controller. 90 day limited warranty.

64KRAMs$ 5

9 each, 4164 200 ns chips 1-99 sets $7

256KRAMa$32

9 each, 4256 150 ns chips 1-99 sets $34

128KRAMs$37

9 each, 4128 150 ns chips 1-99 sets $39

All prices subject to change without notice. 90 day limited warranty.

Magnum • EconoRAM
384Ks$89

• Full 384K of RAM

• Short Board

• Fastrak Printer Spooler
& RAMdisk Software

• Snap-In Installation

• 1 Year Limited Warranty

For IBM PC, XT and compatibles,
with 256 K of installed memory.

Magnum*PC MasterCard

• Expandable to 1.5 MB

• 1 Serial RS-232C Port

• Parallel Printer Port

• Clock/Calendar & Battery

• Game Port

• Silicon Bullet Software:
Printer Spooler, RAMdisk,
and Bank Switching Driver

• I Year Limited Warranty

More Features Than AST
SixPak Or Quadboard.

For IBM PC, PC XT
or Compatibles.

384 KB s; $179
1.5 MB s,$329

MAGNUM Get Magnum

XT Mark 2

• Fully IBM PC/XT Compatible

• Dual Speed 4.77 and 8 MHz 8088-2

• RAM Expandable to 640K On Motherboard

• 360K Floppy Disk Drives

• 135 Watt Power Supply

• IBM Selectric AT Style Keyboard (84 Keys)

• 5 Expansion Slots

• 2 Serial RS-232C Ports Built-in

• Parallel Printer Interface Built-in

• Clock/Calendar Built-in

• Floppy Disk Controller Built-in
■ Tape Backup Interface Built-in

• MS-DOS Operating System

• Complete User Operating Manual

• Reset Button Switch Built-in

• 8087-2 Co-Processor (optional)

• RAMdisk & Printer Spooler

• 90 Day Limited Warranty

In Your Corner
Only $895

System A

128K.1 360K Floppy drive

Systems

B. 640K, 2 360K
Floppy Drives

C.640K.1 Floppy,
10 MB Hard Drive .

D. System C plus
Tape Backup

J. 640K, 1 Floppy,
20 MB Hard Drive.

$ 995
$1595
$2295
$1795

Other systems available, please call.

Above prices exclude video card and monitor.

Our
References

• First Interstate Bank (503) 643-4678 • Dun and Bradstreet

• Portland Chamber of Commerce (503) 228-9411 • Others On Request

• Direct Marketing Association

<P^»

1»800»547M289

Oregon Toll Free 1»800»451»5151 Telex 910 380 3980
Foreign, Local (503) 620-9878 hours 6-6 (Pacific) Mon-Fri, 8-4 Sat
Customer Service (503) 620-9877 hours 8-5 (Pacific) Mon-Fri

Conroy»LaPointc

Inquiry 97 for Apple. Inquiry 98 for IBM Peripherals. Inquiry 99 for all others.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 115

Introduction
to the Amiga
ROM Kernel

A look inside

the Amiga by the
creator of Intuition

Editor's note: The first version of this article
appeared on BIX (BYTE Information Ex-
change) on October 10, 1985.

his article introduces the
building blocks of the
Amiga ROM (read-only
memory) Kernel software.
I will examine the ROM Kernel includ-
ing AmigaDOS and the disk-based
libraries and devices, and present ex-
amples of translating code from other
machines to the Amiga. Finally, I'll
look at the hardware and special fea-
tures of the ROM Kernel, describing
how to use these directly in a sys-
tem-integrated fashion. | Editor's note:
For an overview of the Amiga from Com-
modore, see "The Amiga Personal Computer"
by Gregg Williams, )on Edwards, and Phillip
Robinson. August 1985 BYTE, page 83.)

System Overview

It is rare for software and hardware
groups to work as closely together as
we did at Amiga. We exchanged and
debated ideas continuously during
the creation of the Amiga. The close
relationship influenced the design,
bringing new features to the hardware
and allowing the software to take full
advantage of the hardware.

The Amiga's greatest strengths lie in
its modularity and the interconnec-
tions among its system components,
both hardware and software. The
design teams designed and devel-

oped simultaneously and from the
start they were intended to comple-
ment one another. Even though we
designed the hardware pieces to fit
tightly together, you can use any
subset of the features without the
necessity of controlling the entire
machine. It's the same with the ROM
software, where the pieces work
closely together but each can stand
alone.

The hardware and software com-
bine efforts in many ways to achieve
the Amiga's performance. For in-
stance, the hardware includes a
special coprocessor, the Copper,
which synchronizes itself to the dis-
play position of the video beam with-
out tying up the bus or the processor.
The Copper can move data to one of
the many hardware registers or it can
cause a 68000 interrupt, which the
Amiga's multitasking Exec (also
known as Executive) then processes.
This makes the Copper a powerful,
unobtrusive auxiliary tool. It is used
by the Graphics Support library for
display-oriented changes and by the
audio device for time-critical audio-
channel manipulations. You can use
the Copper for time-critical opera-
tions because it's tied to the display,
which is guaranteed to run at 60 Hz
(the display processors start from the
top of the screen 60 times a second).

The way the Amiga handles com-
munications with its peripherals is
another example of the union of hard-
ware and software. The signals that
pass between the Amiga and its pe-
ripherals are interrupt-driven. Periph-
erals, therefore, do not disturb the sys-
tem or require monitoring until infor-
mation needs to be communicated.
The Amiga Exec works with the inter-

rupt-driven communication by man-
aging a complete interrupt-processing
mechanism, providing a convenient,
interleaved, prioritized processing of
interrupts.

The multitasking Exec forms the
core of the system software; it is a
compact collection of routines that
underlies the rest of the Amiga ROM
software. The developers attempted
to optimize the Exec for space, per-
formance, clarity of usage, and the
creation and management of lists,
which are the primary components of
Exec. All of the other pieces of the
Exec are built on lists and, therefore,
provide performance with a minimum
of system overhead. You will be able
to use even the more esoteric Exec
functions once you learn the concept
of the Exec list.

Exec is the starting point for all the
other pieces of ROM software, most-
ly because it is the controller of tasks
and interrupts. Each of the ROM ,
Kernel software components is de-
signed to stand alone as much as
possible; programmers can choose
which components to use. But at the

[continued)
Robert J. Mical. Director of Intuition for
Commodore-Amiga, created Intuition and the
Amiga's GELS system. He can be reached
at Commodore-Amiga Inc.. 983 University
Ave.. #D, Ids Gatos. CA 95030.

116 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

by Robert J. Mical

Figure I: ROM Kernel overview.

ILLUSTRATED BY DANIEL PELAV1N

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 117

AMIGA ROM KERNEL

Tasks are the most
elemental executable
component under Exec.

same time, the components were de-
signed to share resources and a com-
mon interface as much as possible, to
aid the programmer's understanding
of the system as a whole.

Primary ROM Kernel
Software

Figure 1 summarizes the many com-
ponents of the Amiga ROM Kernel
and their interrelationships. This sec-
tion briefly introduces the com-
ponents that I will describe in more
detail.

First and foremost is the multitask-
ing Exec. Its primary responsibility is
to manage the Amiga environment
and resources for the many tasks that
can reside simultaneously in the
Amiga, with each free to make any re-
quest of the system at any time. It also
provides a common interface be-
tween applications and many of the
ROM software mechanisms.

Almost all code that executes in the
Amiga is, at its lowest system level, a
task. Each task has its own execution
environment; in other words, each
task appears to control the entire
machine, except for memory that
Exec won't allow the task to allocate.

Exec also manages the available
memory and provides routines that
allow an application to allocate a
block of memory and do its own
memory management within that
block. Finally, Exec supplies routines
that enable uniform access to Amiga
devices and libraries.

A device is a special I/O (input/out-
put) mechanism that uses tasks to
create systematic access to some
hardware component. For example,
by using the Amiga timer device you
can receive an interrupt or be
awakened from a wait state after a
period of time that you specify. By
using the console device, which is
described later, your application can

receive input and write text output in
the simplest fashion possible, as if it
were connected to a normal com-
puter terminal.

A library is a collection of related
routines that reside in ROM or that
you load from disk. The routines have
no fixed address, and you call them
indirectly. Applications, therefore,
don't need to know the absolute ad-
dress of any library routine when you
compile the program. More signifi-
cantly, except for the one address that
contains the pointer to the Exec data--
base, there is no need for absolute ad-
dresses anywhere in the system.

The Graphics Support library, an-
other important component of the
Amiga ROM Kernel and an example
of an Exec library, provides a shell of
software between the programmer
and the Amiga graphics hardware.
The graphics hardware is extremely
complex, but the graphics routines
eliminate much of the complexity by
translating simple rendering requests
into systematic writes to the hardware
registers. The routines also program
the Amiga's special coprocessor. Ap-
plications can use the Graphics library
simply to draw lines and fill areas or
to do more complex things such as
gaining systematic access to the
special hardware mechanisms like the
coprocessor and the block-transfer
device. An application knows the
graphics routines only as offsets in a
table, and the application doesn't
know about the table until it opens
the library at run time.

Intuition is another example of a
library. It is a collection of routines
that support and provide convenient
access to Exec's multitasking capabil-
ities. It also provides mechanisms that
enable users to interact easily with ap-
plications. Intuition uses the Graphics
library to create display environments
in which many applications can co-
exist. Intuition also provides an alter-
nate source of input for applications
that don't want to use the console
device for preprocessed data.

Multitasking

Each executing unit (except the pro-
gram executed by the coprocessor)

gets its own environment; in effect, it
gets a complete machine. The task
gets its own registers, stack, and pro-
cess state, and it can access I/O
devices (including the disk device and
the graphics display) without worry-
ing about other tasks that may be out
there competing for the same re-
sources.

Tksks are very simple. They are the
most elemental executable compo-
nent under Exec. Everything is built
on top of the task, including simple
task programs, devices, and Amiga-
DOS processes.

Programmers can, if they wish, ig-
nore the Amiga's multitasking capa-
bilities for the most part. If you are
writing a simple program to run on
the Amiga, you don't have to care
about other programs that may be
sharing memory and the hardware
resources. For your program to be
well-behaved in the multitasking en-
vironment, you only have to re-
member to always relinquish control
of the processor and resources when-
ever possible to allow other tasks to
run. For instance, when you are wait-
ing for an event like a keystroke from
the user, you should use the Exec
function Wait(), which provides a con-
venient mechanism for standing aside
and letting other programs run until
the event occurs.

Because the Amiga has only one
microprocessor (the 68000), and tasks
share the CPU, only one task can be
active at a time. Each task has a priori-
ty number, which is an indicator of
how important it is for that task to run.
The numbers range from -128 to
127; most tasks run at priority 0. The
task with the highest priority gets to
run whenever it's ready, even if this re-
quires interrupting the work of a
lower-priority task. If two tasks share
the same priority and both are ready
to run, they share the processor (time-
slicing) by running for a given amount
of time (64 milliseconds) before trans-
ferring control to the other task. When
a task is finished with its work and is
willing to "go to sleep" temporarily
and relinquish control of the system,
it calls the Exec function Wait(). The

[continued)

118 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Dr. Martin Al pert is pleased to re-introduce his

"state of the art" products hovv marketed by his

new subsidiary -Scientific Solutions.

IBM PC? Data Acquisition and Control
for Laboratory and Industry,

Lab Master

• Resolution -12,14 or 16 bit

• Speed - to 80 KHz

• Channels -to 256

• Remote A/D for maximum signal clarity

• Timer counter with 1 microsecond resolution
Plus much more!

I EEE488 Interface

• 3 different addressing modes

• Operates as talker, listener or controller

• DMA controlled transfers

• Control up to 15 instruments

Scientific Solutions' Lab Master and I EEE488 Interface are used by more
scientists and engineers worldwide than any other brands!

Don't forget the other top-selling products now sold through Scientific Solutions:

• Lab Tender™ - Economical 8 bit A/D -D/A • Base Board™ - 96 I/O lines with opto options

• DADIO™ - High speed 12 bit D/A • Stepper Motor Controller™ - Control 1-2 steppers

And more!
For the location of your nearest Scientific Solutions dealer, call 216-349-4030.

S C I E N T I F I C

%

S O L U T i O N S

Scientific Solutions, Inc., 6225 Cochran Road, Solon, Ohio 44139, 216-349-4030. Telex: 510,100,9900
Scientific Solutions International, inc., Chausseede la Hulpe181, T170 Brussels, Belgium. Telex: 20256

Inquiry 330

IBM is a registered trademark of International
Business Machines Corporation

AMIGA ROM KERNEL

function call includes instructions
describing the event that will awaken
the task. (See table I for the sequence
of events required to set up and start
a simple task.) Usually the function
call is some external event, heralded
by the arrival of a message or signal.
When a task "waits," the next task of
equal priority will start to run. When
all tasks of the highest priority are
waiting, the next-lowest-priority task
is allowed to run. This sleeping and
waking of tasks, called task switching,
is managed by Exec.

Messages and Signals

Tasks communicate with each other
using messages and signals. The
signal, the simplest form of intertask
communication, is physically I bit in
a 32-bit word (called the signal-bits
word). Each task gets 32 signal bits.
Some of the low bits are reserved for
system use. The argument to the
Wait() function is a long word (32 bits)
with bit settings corresponding to the
signals for which the task wants to
wait. When the task calls Wait(), it is
saying to the Exec that it wants to wait
for one or more events to occur.
When the task "wakes up," the Wait()
function returns an argument. The
argument is a long word with the
signal bits (more than one is possible)
that were sent back to the task in
order to wake it up again.

Using the Exec function Alloc-
Signal(), the task allocates its signal
bits to identify the types of informa-
tion that are being transmitted. It can
attach the signal to a message it
sends out so that it can readily iden-

tify the reply. Also, tasks can make the
signal globally available to other tasks,
either as a global variable in a pro-
gram of many tasks or as information
in a message being passed via the
message structure. Tasks can commu-
nicate with one another by using
signals and the Exec function Signal().

Alternatively tasks can use mes-
sages to communicate. T&sks know
about each other's ports either
through a globally declared variable
or a prearranged name for the ports.
There are several Exec functions for
managing ports. A task creates a mes-
sage port by using the Exec function
CreatePort() and can assign a text
name to that port. Then other tasks
can find the port by using the Find-
Port() function. The CreatePor () func-
tion allocates and initializes memory
and a signal bit for a message port
and then calls AddPort() to install the
new message into the system.

PutMsg() sends a message to an-
other port. Once you have sent a mes-
sage, you can choose to wait for a
reply (synchronous I/O) or continue
processing and check back later for
a reply (asynchronous I/O). A task
receives messages by using GetMsg(),
which returns the address of a mes-
sage or zero if no message is avail-
able.

Memory Allocation

Several Exec and Intuition routines
manage RAM (random-access read/
write memory) allocation and de-
allocation. The basic functions are
Exec's AllocMemO and FreeMem().
Use AllocMemO to specify how much

Table I: The sequence of events to open a task.

- Initialize a task-control block

- Allocate stack space for the task

- Initialize the stack variables SPUpper, SPLower, and SPRegister.

All procedure calls made by this task need task space, which comes from
here. The programmer is obliged to make sure stack is large enough and to
check for stack overflow. Minimum stack is 66 bytes.

- Initialize the priority (optional)

- Set the name of the task (optional, suggested)

- Create a port (optional) using CreatePort()

- Add the task to the system by calling AddTaskQ

and what type you want (low address,
high address, and whether it should
be cleared to zeros for you). Free-
Mem() returns your piece of memory
to the available pool.

Other Exec memory-allocation rou-
tines allow you to control memory
management yourself. First, you
allocate a block of memory using the
AllocMemO function. Then you do
memory management within the
memory block by using the Exec func-
tions Allocate() and DeallocateQ.

r fesks can use Exec's list capability
to allocate memory in a fashion such
that the memory will be automatical-
ly freed when the task is exiting. Tb
do this, you can allocate memory
blocks using the AllocEntry() function
and then attach the memory list
returned by AllocEntry() to the Mem-
List field of the task's block of control
data. When the task is closing, Exec
deallocates any memory list it finds
in the task's control block.

Intuition provides a pair of memory-
management routines, AllocRemem-
ber() and FreeRemember(). Each call
to AllocRemember() adds to a mem-
ory list of the calling task. A single call
to FreeRemember() frees all memory
allocated by repeated calls to Alloc-
Remember().

The Graphics Library

The Graphics Support library has two
major purposes. It provides a simpli-
fying interface to the complex
mechanics of the Amiga display hard-
ware, and it supplies procedural ac-
cess to the rendering functions of the
Amiga chips. I shall describe here
only the basic rendering functions of
the Graphics library.

The Graphics library supplies
several data structures for defining
and manipulating display memory
Display memory is RAM that is orga-
nized in planes of pixel information.
Each plane contains a single bit of in-
formation for each pixel in the display.
A normal display contains from one
to five planes of pixel data. This
means that each pixel can be defined
using 1 to 5 significant bits (see figure
3 in the August 1985 BYTE article). The

[continued]

120 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

How will you manage the growth
of PC technology in your organization?

Millions of Workers with Personal Computers

1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990

Copyright © 1985 by Future Computing Incorporated, Dallas, Texas

Announcing Future Directions:

The next generation of information

services for PC managers.

Future Directions is different
from any resource you've used
before. It provides you with the
information you need to make
complex personal computer man-
agement decisions. It doesn't
overwhelm you with lengthy
product descriptions.

Designed specifically for busy
personal computer and informa-
tion center managers, Future
Directions is a new loose-leaf ser-
vice from the premier source of
information in the personal com-
puter industry, Future Computing
Incorporated.

A new resource for personal
computer managers.
Future Directions puts a team of
experts behind every manage-
ment decision you make, increas-
ing your influencing power in the
decision process and validating
your selections.

It gives you more than our
opinions on today's office automa-
tion trends. It also provides a
clear picture of future trends
in technology.

A time-saving decision tool
for managers.

Future Directions is simple to use.
In 250 pages of easy-to-read
charts and text, it presents timely
information on such product
segments as personal computers,
software, and peripherals.

For each product segment, we
cover today's most important
issues and trends, such as net-
working, site licensing, standards,
compatibility, artificial intelli-

Inquiry 258

gence, and more.

Future Directions leads you
step-by-step through the impor-
tant issues affecting product
selections. First, it presents var-
ious product technologies. Concise
charts match technologies to
types of usage. Once you deter-
mine how your company will use
a product, you can compare tech-
nologies based on price, perfor-
mance, and other factors. And for
each product segment, Future
Directions explores future
technology trends and indus-
try standards.

Most of the information is
presented in charts, so you can
quickly find the data you need.
It's also indexed for quick refer-
ences. And you can extract our
charts to support your decisions
in management presentations.
And it's affordable.
Priced at $495* Future Directions
is a management tool you can't
afford to work without. By help-
ing you narrow down product
alternatives quickly, it greatly
reduces the number of products
you need to evaluate before mak-
ing quantity purchases. If Future
Directions reduces your evaluation
process by even one machine, it's
more than paid for itself. It will
also help you avoid mistakes in
personal computer product
selection.

Here's what you'll get:
□ One loose-leaf binder packed
with 250 pages of timely infor-
mation on personal computer

issues and technology trends
d Updates sent every other

month
d 12 issues of a monthly

newsletter
d Free telephone support
The personal computer
information standard.
Future Computing has set the
standards for personal computer
vendors. Founded in 1980, Future
Computing is recognized as the
premier source of information on
the personal computer industry.
All of the information in Future
Directions is based on our exten-
sive research, including surveys
of end users, distribution channel
participants, and personal compu-
ter product vendors.

Money back guarantee.

Because we're confident that
Future Directions is the most
valuable resource on personal
computer issues and trends, we're
offering you a risk-free subscrip-
tion. If you're not satisfied with
Future Directions just return it
within 15 days and receive a
complete refund.
Order today.

To order, complete and mail the
form below or call a Marketing
Representative at 214 437-2400
today.

□ I want the information I need to
make personal computer man-
agement decisions right at my
fingertips. Enter my subscrip-
tion for Future Directions for
$495. ($600 international price.)

□ Please send me more informa-
tion about Future Directions.

Name

Sales Support

Future Computing Incorporated

8111 LB J Freeway

Dallas, Texas 75251

Title-

Company.
Address—

City/State/Zip

Phone ( )

*Price subject to change without notice.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 121

AMIGA ROM KERNEL

Table 2: The main components of a RastPort structure.

PRIMARY RENDERING PEN

FgPen (ForegroundPen, or PrimaryPen) is the primary drawing pen.

When only one pen is being used (simple line draws and rectangular area fills), this

is it.

SECONDARY RENDERING PEN

BgPen (BackgroundPen, or SecondaryPen) is the pen that's used when a second

pen is required, for instance, when drawing text.

DRAW MODE

DrawMode is the variable that describes how the rendering should take place, for
example, using the topics covered below:
Line Drawing

JAM1 Draw the line in the value of FgPen.
JAM2 As with JAM1, draw the line in the value of FgPen.
COMPLEMENT Ignore the pen colors, and binary complement every bit
where the line is drawn.

Filling Rectangular Areas

JAM1 Fill the area in the value of FgPen.
JAM2 As with JAM1, fill the area in the value of FgPen.
COMPLEMENT Ignore the pen colors, and binary complement every bit
of the defined area.

Printing Text

JAM1 Print the character information of the text in the value of FgPen,
leaving the background undisturbed where the character is sur-
rounded by "white space."
JAM2 Print the character information of the text in the value of FgPen,
and where the character is surrounded by "white space" use the
BgPen.
COMPLEMENT Invert the bit-plane data of the pixels overstruck by the

character imagery.
INVERSEVID This flag works in conjunction with JAM1 and JAM2.

The most typical use is to combine INVERSEVID and
JAM2 to switch the values of FgPen and BgPen when
writing the character, thereby "inverting" the normal
character rendering.

Listing l : The following C-language procedure illustrates the steps for drawing a
line.

DrawLine(RPort, Pen, Mode, StartX, StartY, EndX, EndY)

struct RastPort *RPort;

UBYTE Pen, Mode;

SHORT StartX, StartY, EndX, EndY;

SetAPen(RPort, Pen);
SetDrMd(RPort, Mode);
Move(RPort, StartX, StartY);
Draw(RPort, EndX, EndY);

combination of bits in the pixel con-
stitutes a value that can range from
to 3 1 . depending on how many bit
planes are used in the display mem-
ory. This value corresponds to one of
the Amiga's 32 color registers. The
value of a pixel is used by the display
hardware as an index into the hard-
ware color registers. Each color reg-
ister is 1 2 bits wide, so each color reg-
ister can describe one of 4096 values.
The net result is that the Amiga can
display up to 32 colors on the display
at one time, and each of these colors
can be one of 4096 possible tints.

The most basic -structures in the
Graphics library are the BitMap and
the RastPort (raster port). The BitMap
structure defines how bit planes are
grouped together to form display
memory. The RastPort structure is a
compendium of parameters required
for rendering into the BitMap's dis-
play memory. This rendering is done
by the graphics routines, the text
routines, and the animation objects,
l&ble 2 describes the most important
components of the RastPort structure.

The Graphics Pen

When the Graphics library performs
rendering, it often uses the RastPort
"pen," which describes both the color
register and display position used
when drawing lines, writing text, and
doing simple rectangular area fills.
The primary pen used for rendering
graphics is the foreground pen,
known as pen A. You use the back-
ground pen, or pen B, to do more
elaborate rendering, such as pat-
terned lines and rendering both the
foreground and background of text
characters.

The routine SetApen() sets the pen's
value, which specifies one of the hard-
ware color registers. The pen also has
a specified coordinate in a RastPort.
You use Move() to set the position of
the pen, the starting point for lines,
and the baseline for text characters.

Drawing Lines and Filling
Rectangles

Drawing a line requires only four steps
(see listing 1). First, you set the pen

[continued)

122 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

VTERM. THE FASTEST WAY

TO THE VAX

BACK.

VTERM H AND VTERM/4010: FOR VT100 AND TEKTRONIX™
4010 EMULATION, AND THEN SOME.

More and more people make the trip every day. Often several
times. They're off to the VAX for a session or a file, then back to
PC-DOS.

That's why we wrote VTERM -the fastest, most advanced
communications program for PC users who communicate with
VAXes, and other minis or mainframes.

Of course, VTERM starts with everything you'd
expect from state-of-the-art terminal emulation
software. Like full keyboard emulation. Macros.
Disk capture. Unlimited setup files. Printer support. True plug
compatibility, so you can run any VT100 or Tektronix 4010 pro-
gram right from your PC keyboard.

MAKE YOUR PC FLY.

But then VTERM goes beyond everything else on the market.
With a Hotkey that instantly toggles between host and DOS ses-
sions while preserving your terminal screen and communica-
tions link . That means you can run host and local programs al-
most simultaneously. And because VTERM is written in assembly
language, you get full throughput at 9600 baud.

Coefficient

With VTERM, there's nothing to get in your way or slow
you down. It's easy to use, yet packed with time-saving features.
Like backscrolling, which redisplays up to 80 scrolled-off
screens. And horizontal scrolling, which emulates 13 2- column
display. (Of course, VTERM provides true 132-column display
with an optional video board.)

KERMIT FILE TRANSFER AND MORE.

VTERM delivers the most powerful file transfer system
available with any general communications package. You
get four error-correcting protocols including XMODEM and
Kermit, the emerging micro-to-mainframe standard from
Columbia University.

And you also get VTRANS, a remarkably easy-to-use file
transfer system that transmits any file under
local or host control. It even comes with \
ready-to-run host software for UNIX and I
three DEC operating systems - VMS, RSTS/E, £
andRSXll-M/M + .

So why waste time? Call Coefficient
Systems Corp. to order your copy
of VTERM today.

Coefficient Systems Corporation, 611 Broadway, New York, New York 10012, (212) 777-6707, Ext. 233

© 1985, Coefficient Systems Corp. TM signifies manufacturer's trademark.

Inquiry 71

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 123

AMIGA ROM KERNEL

Intuition takes many
complex aspects of
the system and reduces
them to simple
procedure calls.

color for the line. The pen numbers
available depend on how many bit
planes you have in your BitMap. Next,
you set the drawing mode for the line
you want to draw. Typically, you will
select the drawing mode JAM1 for
simple lines. Finally, move the pen to
the starting position of the line and
draw to the end position.

Therefore, the statement Draw-
Line(RPort, 1, JAM1, 10, 10, 15, 25);
draws a line in color I from position
(10,10) to position (15,25). In effect, the
Draw() function drags the pen to the
new location, leaving a trail to show
where it moved. In line-plotter ter-
minology, Move() is equivalent to
"move with pen up," and Draw() is
equivilentto "move with pen down."

Once set, the drawing-mode and
pen-color variables retain their values
until you change them. You do not
need to set the drawing mode and
pen color each time you draw a line.

The Graphics library also has a rou-
tine for filling rectangles that are
parallel to the horizontal and vertical

axes with a given color. The function
RectFill() uses the drawing pen and
mode that were set up by previous
calls to the RastPort operators. The
routine accepts two coordinates, the
top-left and bottom-right corners of a
rectangle. It then uses the Amiga
hardware to draw the rectangles. In an
unencumbered system, the Graphics
library can create approximately one
thousand 96- by 96-pixel single bit-
plane rectangles per second.

Printing Text

You also use the graphics pens to
print text. The position of the graphics
pen describes the position in which
the text will be rendered. The x-co-
ordinate specifies the pixel position
for the first character. The ^-co-
ordinate describes the characters'
"baseline," like the lines on lined
paper. The bottoms of the characters
will rest on the baseline; descenders
will extend below it.

You use the foreground pen to draw
the characters. The drawing mode
JAM1 draws the characters' images
over the background in the color of
the foreground pen, and the BitMap
shows through the blank space
around the character imagery. Draw-
ing mode JAM2 uses both the fore-
ground and background pens. As in
JAM1, the foreground pen renders
the character imagery, but the blank
space that surrounds the character is
now rendered in the background pen
color, thereby obliterating any BitMap
information beneath the character.

Listing 2: A C procedure illustrating the steps for printing text.

PrintText(RPort t String, StringLength, FrontPen, BackPen, TextMode, X, Y) struct

RastPort *RPort;

BYTE -String;

UBYTE FrontPen, BackPen;

SHORT TextMode;

SHORT X, Y, StringLength;

{

SetAPen(RPort, FrontPen);

SetBPen(RPort, BackPen);

SetDrMd(RPort, TextMode);

Move(RPort, X, Y);

Text(RPort, String, StringLength);
}

The INVERSEVID (inverse video)
drawing mode combines both draw-
ing modes to reverse the meanings of
the pens.

To set up pens and drawing modes
to write text, you use the same
routines you used to draw lines. You
establish the pen values and drawing
mode with SetAPen(), SetBPen(), and
SetDrMd(). You move the pen to a
given position with Move(). You then
call Text() to render your text into the
RastPort (see listing 2). As in line
drawing, you need not reset the pens,
the drawing mode, or move the pen
position before you render text. If you
call Text() twice, the second line of text
will follow, correctly spaced, on the
same baseline as the first.

Intuition

Intuition is called the Amiga User In-
terface, but it also provides simple
mechanisms for creating displays that
support multitasking. Intuition takes
many complex aspects of the system
and reduces them to simple pro-
cedure calls. You don't even need to
understand the calls to use them. One
of the primary goals of Intuition was
to ease the effort of programmers by
simplifying the interface to the ROM
Kernel software as much as possible.
Intuition provides tools for creating an
environment that is intuitive for the
user and convenient for the applica-
tion designer. Designers are free to
take advantage of any combination of
the tools and constructs that Intuition
provides and manages.

The screen is the basic unit of the
Intuition display. A screen is a com-
bination of display memory and in-
structions to the Amiga graphics hard-
ware about how to translate that dis-
play memory into the video' display.
The screen's display memory is used
for all of the Graphics library func-
tions, and all of the Intuition display
components are ultimately rendered
in screen display memory.

You use Graphics library calls to
create the screen display. When you
first create screens, they normally fill
the entire video display. The graphic
aspect of the screen is actually a

[continued)

124 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

Meet The Princeton
Graphic Systems family

The right monitor at the right price. Princeton Graphic Systems offers you a complete family of high
performance personal computer monitors. Monitors that deliver the compatibility, resolution, and reliability
you need for any application and any budget: from word processing to sophisticated business graphics.

HX-12E. High resolution RGB
monitor 640x350 lines noninterlac-
ed - .28 mm dot pitch -Compatible
with IBM Enhanced Graphics
Adapter -Nonglare screen -$785

HX-12. High resolution RGB
monitor -640 x 200 lines
noninterlaced -.31 mm dot pitch

tube-Nonglare screen -$695

%e^

HX-9/9E. Nine inch, high
resolution RGB monitor non-
interlaced -.28mm dot pitch tube
-9E compatible with IBM Enhanced
Graphics Adapter -Nonglare screen
-Green/amber switch -Apple/IBM
colors - Etched dark glass screen
-SB50/S750 (9E)

MAX- 12. Amber monochrome
-720 x 350 lines -Enhanced to in-
terface with IBM color or
monochrome adapter card
-Nonglare screen -Can display 16
shades of amber -$249

SR-12P. PGS's top of the line
RGB monitor 640x480 lines
^ noninterlaced - .26 mm dot
pitch - Analog input allows
for the display of 4,096
possible colors -Compatible
with IBM Professional
Graphics Adapter -Nonglare screen -$999

SR-12. Super-high resolution RGB
monitor -640 x 400 lines noninterlaced
-.31 mm dot pitch tube - Nonglare screen
- Requires interface card -$799

Princeton Graphic Systems. The only real choice.

For office or home use, Princeton Graphic Systems has a monitor that's right for you. Inquire
at your local computer store about our complete line of high resolution color and monochrome
monitors; monitors that live up to the Princeton Graphic Systems 'tradition of quality, perfor-
mance, and value. Princeton Graphic Systems. 601 Ewing Street, Bldg. A, Princeton, N.J.
08540. (609) 683-1660 Telex: 821402PGSPRIN (800) 221-1490. Ext. 304.

Princeton accessory product line.

Undergraduate tilt/swivel monitor base,
ColorView card, Green/Amber switch, RGB-80 card
and Scan Doubler card.

PRINCETON

IBM IBM Enhanced Giaplvcs Adapter, and IBM Professional Graphics Adapter are trademarks
ot International Business Machines. Inc. Compaq is a trademark of Compaq Computer Corp.
Corona is a trademark ol Corona Data Systems. Inc. Apple is a trademark ot Apple Computer
Corp. PC World is a trademark of CW Communications Inc SR-12 screen courtesy ot Mouse
Systems. Inc.

GRAPHIC 5V5TEM5

AN INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS COMPANY

Inquiry 262

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 125

Inquiry 260

The Turbo Pascal™
Software Information exchange

Megabytes of Turbo Pascal code,
including many commercial quality
programs, are now available from a
single source for the low price of

$6 per diskette*

* non-member price is $7.50 per disk
Each diskette is packed with programs and/or
routines organized to offer solutions in a
selected area of interest. You will save
countless hours and learn from the work of
your fellow Turbo programmers.

Some of the selections currently
available are:

106. DOS Functions (MS-DOS & CP/M)

504. Telecommunications Programs

402. Business Financial Analysis

301. Home Financial Management

206. Source Code Processing

702. Astronomy Programs w/Graphics

603. Turbo Games

212. Screen Design Tools

Many more selections available with new titles
added regularly. For a complete list send for
the TURBO S.I.X. catalog or better yet join
TURBO S.I.X. As a memberyou will enjoy the
following benefits:

• Get your first selection for 5C!

• $1.50 discount on every disk!

• A MONTHLY newsletter covering
what's new in Turbo software, pro-
gramming tips and other topics of
interest to the Turbo Pascal user.
Edited by Steve Wood, author of
Using Turbo Pascal. (Osborne/
McGraw-Hill)

Your one year membership is
ONLY $19.95

Add just 5C for your first diskette. It can be one
of the selections mentioned above, or you can
wait and choose from the catalog you get
FREE with your paid membership. The
catalog is available separately for $1 .95. Texas
residents add 5% sales tax.

TURBO S.I.X.

2012 Lake Air, Dept. B1

Waco, Texas 76710

(817) 753-2182 • (817) 776-3103

AMIGA ROM KERNEL

superset of the Graphics library's
ViewPort The Graphics library sets up
the Amiga hardware to create the
desired display as specified in the
fields of the screen data structure.

You can create displays by going to
the Graphics library directly, without
using Intuition. Designers interested
in taking over the entire machine will
do this, but it is more difficult than
using Intuition. Creating a display in-
volves many steps and requires that
you make the correct procedure calls
with the correct arguments. Intuition
helps you by doing the grunt work,
reducing the creation of a display to
two steps: the initialization of a New-
Screen data structure, and a single
procedure call to the Intuition func-
tion OpenScreen().

An application designer can create
any Amiga display possible by defin-
ing and opening an Intuition screen.
All screens are rectangular; you
decide the width and height of the
screen, as well as the number of
colors that will appear. You also
decide on the display type (low- or
high-resolution, interlaced or noninter-
laced, etc.). Also, if you create the dis-
play as an Intuition screen, it can co-
exist on the video display with other
Intuition screens, giving users the
ability to choose (by dragging them
up and down or by depth-arranging
them) from multiple tasks even when
each task requires its own display.

Windows

Windows are distinct display-output
areas that open within screens; out-
put written to one window never af-
fects any of the other windows,
regardless of their relative positions.
Windows are flexible and easy to
create; undoubtedly, most applica-
tions will exploit them (although the
screen's display memory can be used
directly, without opening a window).
Windows can be sized, moved, and
depth-arranged, either by the user or
programmatically by the application.
When a user manipulates a window,
it can react to the changes or ignore
them. The programmer will decide.
The user will decide which window
will be active for input at any time, but

you can even ignore whether or not
your window is active for input. You
can write into any window at any time,
regardless of what else is happening
in the system.

Because the application can entire-
ly ignore the shape, position, and '
state of the window, each window can
act as a "virtual terminal" for the ap-
plication program. The application
can, in fact, learn nothing more about
Intuition than how to open and close
a window, and then open the Console
Device and do I/O, as if it were con-
nected to a normal ANSI (American
National Standards Institute) terminal.
You open a window, like a screen, by
initializing a data structure, New-
Window, and calling a single pro-
cedure, OpenWindQw(). You also
need to select a window type (see
table 3).

Intuition provides special control
mechanisms called gadgets, which
you can attach to a window. There are
four types of system-defined gadgets;
the sizing gadget, which allows users
to size the window; the depth-ar-
rangement gadget, with which users
can arrange the window from front to
back with respect to other windows;
the drag gadget, which allows users
to drag the window around the
screen; and the window-close gadget,
which sends a message specifying
that a user wishes to close the
window.

In addition to the system gadgets,
you can create many different types
of custom gadgets for your windows.
There are four basic classes of
gadgets from which to choose:
Boolean, for true or false selects; pro-
portional, which returns a range from
to 6553 5; string, which allows a user
to enter a text string; and integer, for
integer-only strings.

You can also use simple procedure
calls to write text to Intuition windows.
Before you write text, you can move
the cursor to a specific location. You
can also bypass the standard fonts
that are built into the ROM by open-
ing one of the disk-based system fonts
or designing and opening a font of
your own. Fonts also have special al-

[continued)

126 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

The world's best selling monochrome
graphics card for the IBM PC.

There are more Hercules™
Graphics Cards in more IBM®
PCs, XTs and ATs than any
other monochrome graphics
card in the world.

Over a quarter of a million
demanding users around the
world use a Hercules Graphics
Card to improve the perfor-
mance of their software.
The Lotus" 1-2-3* Booster.

Consider Lotus 1-2-3.
Hercules gives an off-the-shelf
copy of 1-2-3
the highest
resolution
possible
on an IBM
PC, XT or AT. More 1-2-3
users choose the Hercules
Graphics Card to get crisper
text and sharper graphics
than any other monochrome
graphics card.

And we bring the same
performance to other integrat-
ed programs like Symphony,"
Framework," and SuperCalc*3.

But we don't stop there.
The Hercules Graphics Card

improves all kinds of software.

Like Microsoft® Word, a
word processor that enables
you to display text with sub-
scripts, superscripts and italics.

Or pf s! Graph, an easy-to-
use business graphics program
that converts your data into
presentation quality graphs.

Or Microsoft" Flight Simu-
lator, the high flying game for
the overworked executive.

Or our own Graph X™ a
library of graphics sub-
routines that eases graphics
programming.

Or AutoCAD," a computer
aided design program that
offers features normally asso-
ciated with expensive CAD
systems.

And we supply free soft-
ware with each card
to do hi-res graph-
ics using the PC's
BASIC interpreter.
State-Of-The-Art Hardware.

The Hercules Graphics
Card gives you graphics res-
olution of 720h x 348 v and a

parallel printer port. Our
unique static RAM buffer pro-
vides sharp 9 x 14 characters
and flicker-free scrolling. Our
exclusive safety features help
prevent damage
to your monitor.
State-of-the-art
custom IC technology
delivers unsurpassed reli-
ability. Ordinary graphics cards
use up to 30 ICs to do what one
Hercules IC does. By using
fewer parts, we reduce the pos-
sibility of component failure.

Which is one reason we
warranty the Hercules
Graphics Card for two years.

Unbeatable reliability.
Advanced technology. Proven
by over a quarter of a million
users. Why settle for anything
less than Hercules?

Call 1-800-532-0600 Ext 408
for the name of a Hercules
dealer nearest you and we'll
rush you our free info kit.

Hercules.

We're strong on graphics.

Address: 2550 Ninth St., Berkeley. CA 94710 Ph: 415 540-6000 Telex: 754063. Trademarks/Owners: Hercules, Graph X/Hercules; 1-2-3, Symphony/Lotus; IBM, XT,
AT/IBM; Framework/Ashton-Tate; SuperCalc/Sorcim-IUS; Microsoft/Microsoft; pfs:/Software Publ; AutoCAD/AutoDesk. Printer cable offer expires February 28, 1986.
Good only in U.S.A., offer subject to change without notice.

Inquiry 154

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 127

Inquiry 203

3.5" DISK

COMPATIBILITY
FOR YOUR PC

MANZANA'S 3.5" ADD-ON
DISK DRIVE FOR THE IBM PC
(AND MANY COMPATIBLES)

COMPATIBILITY with the

new generation of lap-top
computers using 3.5" disk
drives.

CONVENIENCE of rugged
3.5" disk media.
CAPACITY of 730K addi-
tional storage for your PC.
DIRECT ACCESS on your
PC to files generated on
DG/One, TI Pro-Lite,GRiD
Case,HP 110&150,Toshiba
T-1100, and Atari 520ST
via our flexible, powerful
software device driver.

Built-in voltage spike protection

FCC-approved
VL'listed plug-in AC transformer
Limited 6-month factory warranty

MDP3 3.5" drive with an MAP3-PC
accessory package forms a complete
add-on package for the IBM PC or
XT. Absolutely no tools needed for
installation. Runs off standard IBM
floppy controller.

Accessory packages for IBM AT,
PC-compatibles & AT-compatibles
available soon. Also coming: dual
external drive, internal 3.5" kit.

For more information, contact your
dealer or call direct.

MANZANA

935 Camino del Sur

Isla Vista, CA 93117

(805) 968-1387

AMIGA ROM KERNEL

Tkble 3: A list of the more important window features.
SPECIAL WINDOW TYPES

These aren't mutually exclusive. You can combine special window types.

Backdrop— This window opens up behind and stays behind all other windows.
Gimmezerozero— This is a two-layer window, where the Intuition border and gadgets

are kept out of your way in a separate layer.
Borderless— This window has no default Intuition borders.
SuperBitMap— You can supply your own display memory for a window using the

SuperBitMap type of window.

WINDOW DISPLAY PRESERVATION

Simple Refresh— When part of this window is concealed, the data is discarded.

When the window is revealed, you must redraw those discarded sections.
Smart Refresh— The concealed portions of the screen are saved in off-screen buffers

and restored automatically when the window is later revealed.
SuperBitMap— The display memory for this window is entirely off-screen in your own

private buffer, except for the revealed portions of the window.

SYSTEM GADGETS

Sizing gadget— This system gadget enables the user to change the size of the

window.
Depth-arrangement gadget— This system gadget enables the user to change the

front-to-back ordering of the windows.
Drag gadget— This system gadget enables the user to drag the window around the

screen.
Close gadget— The user can select this gadget and cause a special message to be

sent to your task.

gorithmically generated variations,
such as bold and italics.

Menus and the IDCMP

The Intuition menu system enables
you to group together and display the
functions and options that your appli-
cation offers. Menu items can be
graphic images or text, and you can
position them in any way. You can
select one or two menu levels to pre-
sent the items. Users can select menu
items with the mouse or with com-
mand-key shortcuts.

The typical application finds out
about the selection of a menu option
through IDCMPs (Intuition Direct
Communications Message Ports),
standard Exec message ports and
message passing simplified for devel-
opers. When Intuition sets up an
IDCMP, it allocates and initializes the
two ports that message passing re-
quires (one to receive the message
and the other to receive the reply).
You don't need to learn about the

many mechanisms for creating and
maintaining ports; you only need to
learn how to receive messages.

You receive messages' about key-
board events, mouse movement and
mouse buttons, disk events, and Intui-
tion events all through the IDCMP. The
other avenue for getting input is
through the Console Device, which
does terminal-like preprocessing of
the data to create ASCII code and
ANSI escape sequences. Applications
that want to rely heavily on the
Amiga's virtual-terminal capability will
use the Console Device rather than
the IDCMP

Summary

What started out as a high-powered
game machine three years ago has
evolved into a full-system computer.
This article introduces three system
components: Exec, Graphics, and In-
tuition. But other aspects of the sys-
tem are as useful and powerful; such
is the Amiga. ■

128 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

WhatTo Do
When You're
OnThe Ropes.

%

L

•YM

«» n

iS,

Tie Up

Your

Resources.

You know you have to tie your resources
together. Share files, applications and printers.
Make dissimilar systems interact. Even
communicate outside your department or
work group.

But the local area network vs. multi-
user computer entanglement probably has
you on a decision-maker's tightrope.

One line of thought says a network will
bring everyone together. The other believes
a shared logic multi-user system is the
way to go.

In fact, both are wrong. And both are
rightThe reality is it all depends. It depends
on your needs.

So it's important to remember the
company that's perfectly positioned to give you
an honest answer. A company whose only
vested interest is in your success. A company
with the experience, know-how and means
to give you an inexpensive solution. Corvus.

The days of pushing peripherals are
over. New people, new programs and new
products are here.

For instance, the most cost-effective
desktop network solution in the world—
Omninet— is being expanded with new file,
printer and communications services. Sup-
porting the standards you live with, and turn-
ing your network into a system solution.

This added value approach is carried
through our multi-user systems, too. A product
line based on UNIX System V compatibility.
With uncanny cost-effectiveness.

So before you get to the end of your
rope, talk to a company that has both technol-
ogies under one roof. The one company that
can tie up your resources without strangling
your budget. Corvus.

Gorvus

Inquiry 101

: v 5 *

m f 3

Think
AlongThe
Same Lines.

The battle rages. Networks vs. multi-
user systems. Today, conflict reigns.

But tomorrow, networks and multi-user
machines will coexist. Peacefully. Under the
same roof. Communicating with each other.

In the not too distant future, LAN and
multi-user technologies will converge.The
lines of communication will be transparent to
the users. Because the solution will be
system-wide.

That's not just our opinion. It's our
technological mandate. Because we're the only
company so well-versed in the design, manu-
facture and installation of both local area net-
works and multi-user systems. Solutions that
won't empty your bank account.

That's the Corvus solution.

You won't have to trash your current
computer investment. And you won't have to
get involved with the kind of massive invest-
ment program the computer giants want
you to swallow.

You can add the storage, communi-
cations and computing power you need
incrementally. At the department, cluster or
small work group level. You'll never have to
re-invent the wheel just to get rolling.

Empty promises? Hardly.

We've got the organization in place
to accomplish the task. And our dual technol-
ogies are already coming together. But the
important ingredient is you.

If you want to slug it out with the rest
of the one-way thinkers, we wish you well.
But if you're ready to get everyone in your
company working up to their fullest potential-
sharing information interactively— you should
consider thinking along the same lines we do.

**

Gorvus

Inquiry 101

«%•

mM

Don't Be
Bound To A
Single Solutioa

i*.\

If you've been around computers of
any kind for the last few years, you've learned
that walking the straight and narrow path
is the easiest way to get lost.

Or burned.

Incompatibility Dead ends. Expensive
twists and turns along a too narrow growth
path. These are the facts of computing life that
have caused more than a few gray hairs. And
one or two casualties.

That's why we've evolved from a
technology company to a solutions company.
To look at the most common problems at
the department and work group levels. And to
come up with efficient, inexpensive solutions.

Don't be bound to a single technology:
Either local area networks or multi-user sys-
tems. Instead, work with a company that
understands and has the strengths of both.

Call Corvus today. Toll-free it's (800)
4-CORVUS. Let us look at your computing
problem from a multiple technology perspect-
ive. We think you'll agree that our solution
is the most sensible, most cost-effective way to
free yourself from technologies that bind.

■M#>*-'

Gorvus

Inquiry 101

Corporate Headquarters: 2100 Corvus Drive, San Jose, C A 95124.
(408) 5597000/Telex: 278976.

European Offices: Corvus (U.K.), Ltd., #7 Falrmlle, Henley-on-Thames,
Oxfordshire, England RG9 2JR. Phone: 0491 571100.Telex: 847282.
Corvus Systems, S. A., 47 A, Rue de Lausanne, CH-1201 Geneva,
Switzerland. Phone: 327289. Telex: 27699.

Corvus and Omninet are trademarks of Corvus Systems, Inc.
UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Labs.

BY Raph Levien

Visual
Programming

A LISP editor that
lets you create LISP
programs visually

Many people are in-
terested in LISP but
are put off by the un-
natural syntax. Visual
Syntax is an editor for LISP that
displays programs as pictures with ajl
data paths marked with arrows. It
allows you to create, modify, and edit
functions and expressions and view
them in typical LISP syntax.

With Visual Syntax, you can scan
through the entire library of LISP func-
tions and see intuitively how the func-
tions work. When you are finished,
you will have a much better under-
standing of LISP.

The Reasoning Behind
Visual Syntax

All programming is essentially break-
ing up a large problem into smaller
and smaller functions until the steps
are built-in steps of the programming
language.

With ordinary sequential program-
ming, two steps are put together by
a rule: First do this step, then do the
next step. A sequential program also
needs some way of repeating some
steps.

Functional programming allows you

to put two steps together with the rule:
Use the value of the first step to give
the value of the second. For example,
if the first step is "two plus three" and
the second step is "multiply by four,"
then you can put them together to
make "multiply two plus three by
four." The value of the first step is 5.
This is given to the second step to
make 20.

In the programming language LISP,
the first step above would be broken
into three steps: 2, which is a number,
3, which is also a number, and the
built-in function + . The second step
would be broken into two steps: 4 and
the built-in function *.

A diagram of this is shown in figure
I. Notice that the arrow takes the
value on the left to the function on the
right. Also, functions are in boxes,
values are not.

This sort of diagram works best with
functional programming because se-
quential programming does not have
the direct movement of data that
functional programming features.
However, sequential programming
has an easy method for input and out-

(continued)
Raph levien (levien Instrument Company,
POB 31, McDowell. VA 24458) is the
author of BYSO LISP. He also holds a pat-
ent on a software-protection scheme.

ILLUSTRATED BY CLAUDIA TANTILLO

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 135

VISUAL PROGRAMMING

put, which functional programming
lacks. LISP allows both functional and
sequential programming.

Figure I should be read as "the
product of the sum of 2 and 3, and
4." Similarly, figure 2a should be read
"the car of the list (John is a good
boy)," and figure 2b should be read
"the cdr of the list (John is a good
boy)." | Editor's note: For an introduction to
LISP and an explanation of the functions car,
cdr, and others, see "Ah XLISP Tutorial"
by David Betz, March 1985 BYTE, page
221.|

Figure 3 shows a more complicated
LISP program as displayed in Visual
Syntax. This program defines the
Fibonacci function. The Fibonacci
function is more well known as the
Fibonacci sequence, of which the first
two elements are I and the rest of the
elements are the sum of the previous
two elements. The sequence is I, 1,
2, 3. 5, 8, 13, 21. and so on. The
Fibonacci function of n is simply the
nth value in the Fibonacci sequence
(where you begin counting from zero).
Thus, (fib 4) equals 5.

The LISP program for the Fibonac-
ci function is (defun fib (x) (if (< x 2)
1 (+ (fib ( — x 1)) (fib (- x 2))))). That
is, the value of the Fibonacci function
is I if the argument is less than 2.
Otherwise, it is the sum of the
Fibonacci function for the argument
minus l and the Fibonacci function
for the argument minus 2.

In this program, defun is used to
define a function. The new function is
called fib and has one argument, x.
The if function returns the value of the
second argument if the value of the
first argument is true (not nil); other-
wise, it returns the value of the third
argument. Therefore, in the fib func-
tion, if (< x 2) is true, then the result
is 1 ; otherwise the result is ( + (fib ( -
X 1)) (fib (- X2))).

The Visual Syntax Editor

The Visual Syntax editor allows you
to edit, create, and modify LISP pro-
grams using structures like those in
figures I, 2, and 3. A small version of
the Visual Syntax editor is available
via BYTEnet Listings, as explained at
the end of this article, and on disk, as

— I 1 I —

3 > + > *

:

4 >

Figure I: A diagram of the LISP
expression (* ( + 2 3) 4), as displayed
by the Visual Syntax editor.

(ai

{JOHN IS A GOOD BOY) > CAR

(b)

(JOHN IS A GOOD BOY ) > CDR

Figure 2: (a) A diagram of the
expression "the car of the list (]ohn is a
good boy)'.' (b) A diagram of the
expression "the cdr of the list (\ohn is a
good boy)'/

x ->

2 >

<

— >

IF

1 — >

X — >i 1 i 1 |

1 — >

— >

FIB

— >

+

— >

2 >

-

— >

FIB

— >

Figure 3: The fib function, as displayed
by the Visual Syntax editor.

explained on page 350.

To use the Visual Syntax editor, you
must first enter LISP, then type (load
smallvsd). After a minute or two, LISP
will respond with the message Value
is. . .nil, alerting you that the editor
is now ready for you to use.

You enter the Visual Syntax editor
by typing (edv '(expression to edit)).
This displays the expression in Visual

Syntax. For example, to see the ex-
pression in figure 1, you would type
(edv '(* ( + 2 3) 4)). (Note that the
apostrophe before the expression is
important. Without it, LISP will
evaluate the expression and the
Visual Syntax editor will display its
value, in this case, 20.)

When you start the editor, the
whole expression is highlighted. High-
lighting indicates which part of the ex-
pression is being acted upon. You can
highlight different parts of the expres-
sion by using the arrow keys.

The left arrow key highlights the first
argument of the rightmost function in
the previously highlighted area.

The down arrow key highlights the
expression directly below the current-
ly highlighted area. For example, if the
first argument were highlighted
before, the second argument would
be highlighted afterward.

The up arrow key highlights the ex-
pression directly above the currently
highlighted area. For example, if the
second argument were highlighted
before, the first argument would be
highlighted afterward.

The right arrow key highlights the
function to the right of the old high-
lighted area, along with its arguments.

Figure 4 shows the Fibonacci func-
tion, as displayed by the Visual Syn-
tax editor, after pressing the left arrow
key once and the down arrow key
twice. The + function and its argu-
ments are highlighted.

Editing Commands

Once you have highlighted part of an
expression in the Visual Syntax editor,
you can enter the following one-letter
commands to act upon it.

• C— change current highlighted area.
You can change the current high-
lighted area to an atom or a function.
An atom can be either a number or
a variable. When you use a function
in Visual Syntax, it can be any func-
tion, built-in or user-defined.

• A— add argument to function. You
can add either an atom or a function
as an argument to the currently high-
lighted area.

[continued)

136 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

IBM COMPATIBILITY

. at a not so IBM price

TECH TURBO PC/AT
$2399

PRICE INCLUDES:

■ 6 TO 8 MHZ 80286 CPU
U512K

■ ONE, 1.2 MB FLOPPY DRIVE

■ 8 EXPANSION SLOTS

■ 195 WATT POWER SUPPLY
mCOMPLETEMSDOS,PC

DOS, XENIX COMPATIBILITY

■ RUNS LOTUS 123, DBASE III
FRAMEWORK AND ALL
OTHER POPULAR AT
SOFTWARE

■ ONE YEAR WARRANTY!!

OPTIONS:

TECH TURBO PC/AT WITH
20MB HARD DISK $2825
TECH TURBO PC/AT WITH
20MB HARD DISK,
MONOCHROME MONITOR,
HERCULES® COMPATIBLE
MONOGRAPHICSCARD

$2999

ALSO AVAILABLE WITH TAPE
BACKUPS, MODEMS, LARGER
HARD DISKS, AND NETWORK-
ING SYSTEMS.

TECH PC/AT
$1999

PRICE INCLUDES:

U6MHZ 80286 CPU
m512K

■ ONE, 1.2 MB FLOPPY DRIVE

■ 8 EXPANSION SLOTS

■ 195 WATT POWER SUPPLY

■ COMPLETE MS DOS, PC
DOS, XENIX COMPATIBILITY

■ RUNS LOTUS 123, DBASE III
FRAMEWORK AND ALL
OTHER POPULAR AT
SOFTWARE.

■ ONE YEAR WARRANTY!!

OPTIONS:

TECH PC/AT WITH 20 MB

HARD DISK $2499

TECH PC/AT WITH 20MB

HARD DISK, MONOCHROME

MONITOR,

HERCULES® COMPATIBLE

MONO/GRAPHICS CARD

$2699

ALSO AVAILABLE WITH TAPE
BACKUPS, MODEMS, LARGER
HARD DISKS, AND NETWORK-
ING SYSTEMS.

TECH TURBO PC/XT
$1099

PRICE INCLUDES:

■ 4 TO 7 MHZ SOFTWARE
SWITCHABLE CPU

U640K

■ TWO 360K DS/DD FLOPPY
DISK DRIVES

■ 8 EXPANSION SL01S

■ 135 WATT POWER SUPPLY

■ ONE YEAR WARRANTY!!

TECH PC/XT
$799

PRICE INCLUDES:

■ 4.77 MHZ CPU
m256K

■ TWO, 360K DS/DD FLOPPY
DRIVES

■ 8 EXPANSION SLOTS

■ 135 WATT POWER SUPPLY

■ ONE YEAR WARRANTY!!

OPTIONS:

TECH TURBO PC/XT WITH
20MB HARD DISK $1699
TECH TURBO PC/XT WITH
20MB HARD DISK, MONO-
CHROMEMONITORAND
HERCULES COMPATIBLE
MONO/GRAPHICS CARD

$1950

ALSO AVAILABLE WITH TAPE
BACKUPS, MODEMS, LARGER
HARD DISKS, AND NETWORK-
ING SYSTEMS.

OPTIONS:

TECH PC/XT WITH 20MB
HARD DISK $1449

TECH PC/XT WITH 20MB
HARD DISK, MONOCRHOME
MONITOR, HERCULES COM-
PATIBLE MONO/GRAPHICS
CARD $1649

ALSO AVAILABLE WITH TAPE
BACKUPS, MODEMS, LARGER
HARD DISKS, AND NETWORK-
ING SYSTEMS.

HI-TEK PGS AVT TAXAN IBM AMDEK HERCULES GENOA PARADISE TEAC TOSHIBA HARDWARE/SOFTWARE
NETWORKING HAYS AST JRAM HI-TEK PGS AVT TAXAN AMDEK HERCULES GENOA PARADISE TEAC TOSHIBA

PLEASE ALLOW ONE WEEK
FOR SHIPPING

VISA,
MASTERCHARGE

TELEX: 272006 Answer Back-TECH FAX: 714/556-8325

TECH PERSONAL COMPUTERS

2131 South Hathaway, Santa Ana, California 92705

714/754-1170

©1985 TECH PC

"IBM. IBM PC. XT, and AT are registered trademarks of International "Hercules is a registered trademark of Hercules Compute'
Business Machines Corp Technology

Inquiry 328 for End-Users. Inquiry 329 for DEALERS ONLY.

VISUAL PROGRAMMING

• D— delete highlighted area. Deletes
the currently highlighted argument
from a function.

• I— insert argument to function. You
can insert a new argument between
two arguments by highlighting the
bottom one and inserting either an
atom or a function.

• T— test expression. This evaluates
either just the highlighted area or the
whole screen and prints the value.

• Escape— escape from editor. This
asks you if you really want to exit, and
if you do, takes you back to the LISP
interpreter, which displays the data in
normal LISP notation.

Often, the Visual Syntax editor
makes no distinction between the
highlighted area and the rightmost
function in the highlighted area
because the function is the really im-
portant part.

Also, the editor will often ask ques-
tions that you should answer with one
keypress. For example, Add argument
a)tom or function?. You should
answer this by pressing either the A
or F key.

An Example

As an example of using the editing
commands, here are the steps you
would follow to create the expression
in figure I within the editor (as op-
posed to typing it in typical LISP nota-
tion and then seeing it displayed in
Visual Syntax, as described above).
lb begin, type (edv nil) to the LISP
interpreter to start with a blank slate.
(Here, "type" means press Enter at
the end.) You will see the word nil
highlighted in the upper right corner
of your screen. Now press C to
change the blank slate into the first
function. The editor will respond:
Change to a)tom or f)unction? Press
F, which tells the computer that you
want to change nil into a function. The
editor will ask to which function you
want to change it. Type * to indicate
the multiplication function. Now press
A to add an argument to the * func-*
tion. At the prompt, press F to tell the
computer that you want to add a func-
tion, and type + to indicate the ad-
dition function. Now press the left ar-

2 -

— >

<

— >

if

X — >

1 — >

1

— >

-

— >

fib

— >

+

— >

X >
2 — >

-

— >

fib

— >

Figure 4: Using the cursor keys, you can
highlight (and thereafter edit) specific
parts of an expression or function. Here,
the + function and its two arguments,
part of the larger fib function, are
highlighted.

row key. This will highlight the + func-
tion only. Press A to add an argument
to + . At the prompt, press A to in-
dicate that you are adding an atom,
and type 2. Now press A to add
another argument to + . Press A to
indicate that you are adding an atom,
and type 3. Now press the right ar-
row. This will highlight the whole ex-
pression. Press A to add another
argument to *. Press A to indicate
that you are adding an atom, and type
4. You should now see the entire ex-
pression on your screen. You can then
test this expression by pressing T, to
which the editor should respond

Value: 20

Press any key to return to editor:

Tb get the LISP notation of pro-
grams that you have entered with
Visual Syntax, press the Escape key.
The editor will ask: Are you sure you
want to exit the editor? Then you press
Y and the LISP interpreter will display
the data that you edited with Visual
Syntax in normal LISP notation, with
all the parentheses.

Creating Functions

If you want to define a new function
with the Visual Syntax editor, then
type (edv '(defun function-name
(arguments) nil)). The editor will dis-

play the name of the function and the
variables in the upper left corner, and
the present value of the function, nil,
in the upper right corner. For exam-
ple, to create the fib function, you
would type (edv '(defun fib (x) nil)) and
use the editing commands as de-
scribed above.

You can also use the Visual Syntax
editor to edit previously defined func-
tions. For example, if you had already
defined the fib function in ordinary
LISP syntax, you could edit it in the
Visual Syntax editor by typing (edv
'(grindef fib)), which would display the
value of fib, as shown in figure 3, in
the upper right corner of your screen.

How the Visual Syntax
Editor Works

The most important thing in the
source code for the Visual Syntax
editor is the cursor location. This is
simply a list of numbers. For example,
if the cursor location is (1 2 3), that
means "the first argument of the sec-
ond argument of the third argument
of the function on the right side of the
screen." In this case, if the screen con-
tained the Fibonacci function (figure
3), then the cursor would highlight
(- X2).

This method for locating the cursor
is well suited to the cursor keys. For
example, if the cursor location were
(1 2 3) and pointing to (- x 2), then
if you pressed the left arrow key the
cursor would highlight x, which is the
first argument of the first argument of
the second argument of the third
argument of if, the rightmost function.
This means that the new cursor loca-
tion should be (1 1 2 3). The left arrow
always means insert a I at the begin-
ning of the list. This is neatly accom-
plished by the LISP function cons,
which adds a new element to the front
of a list. The expression that performs
this, (setq curs (cons 1 curs)), occurs
in the edv function (edv is the main
body of the editor) in the source-code
listing.

Similarly, the right arrow removes
the first element from the list, which
is handled by the convenient LISP
function cdr. For example, the cdr of

{continued)

138 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Doesn't your IBM PC deserve IBM service?

You chose an IBM Personal Computer for
lots of good reasons. And now that you depend
on it to help keep your office running smoothly,
doesn't it make sense to help protect your
investment with blue chip service from IBM?

No matter what IBM PC you have, blue
chip service is more than just expert repair.

Blue chip service offers the choice of ser-
vice that's right for you at the price that's right
for you. It means we'll exchange your monitor,
for example, at your place or at any of our
Service/Exchange Centers.

And blue chip service means a lot of things
you don't see. Quality. Speed. Commitment.
And IBM experience. Every year IBM invests
many hours of training to keep its service repre-
sentatives current on technologies that never
stand still.

As an IBM customer you deserve blue chip
service. It's the best thing you can do for your
IBM Personal Computer.

For more information, use the coupon or
call 1 800 IBM-2468, Ext. 104, and ask
for the Service/Exchange
Maintenance Department. =^^s^ij?

Blue chip service from =====" =

r*

IBM Direct kh-2-86

Service/Exchange Maintenance Dept.
One Culver Rd.
Dayton, NJ 08810

□ Please send me more information on IBM PC service.

Name ; Title

Company-
Address

City

_Phone_

_State_

_Zip_

Inquiry 161

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE

139

VISUAL PROGRAMMING

(1 2 3) is (2 3).

Also, the up and down arrows sub-
tract or add I to the first element of
the list, respectively.

The in function, shown in figure 5,
is used to determine what the high-
lighted area is. It is a simple function
and a good example of recursion in
LISP.

However, the in function can also be
used with the setf function. The setf
function changes parts of lists and ar-
rays and is used similarly to setq, ex-
cept that setq assigns values only to
variables. An example of setf is (setf
(car curs) (- (car curs 1))), which
means set the first element of curs to
the old first element of curs minus
one, or subtract one from the first ele-
ment in curs. This is the program for
the up arrow key.

When in is used with setf, this
means you can change the high-
lighted area to another expression.
You can see the use of this in the chel

y "I L

null — >

if

"Eh

X

nth

>>

— >

y i — i ,n h

cdr ^>l 1

Figure 5: A Visual Syntax diagram of
the in function, used by the editor to
determine which is the highlighted area.

function, described below.

What happens is that setf decides
that in is not a built-in function; there-
fore it must be a user-defined function
and must have a user-defined setf pro-
gram. Notice that this is defined with
the defsetf function near the top of
the listing.

The user-defined setf program is
called ins and is nearly as simple as in.

The VisuadDisplay Routines

The visual-display routines vsdl,
vsd2, vsd3, vsd4 and adj are used to
display the programs on the screen.
The routine vsdl decides if a box is
needed or not; vsd2 displays
numbers and variables without a box;
vsd3 displays a function in a box; and
vsd4 displays the arguments to the
function, with arrows pointing to the
function. The routine adj makes the
box large enough so that there is
room for all the arrows. These rou-
tines are described below.

The main function, vsdl , will display
the entire program by calling the
other routines. The routine vsdl is
called by edv, the main body of the
editor, to display the program being
edited.

The visual-display routines use a

{continued)

Making Visual Syntax Work
on Other LISPs

Visual Syntax was written in BYSO
LISP. To use Visual Syntax on
other LISPs, you must adapt some
BYSO-specific parts of the program.
Visual Syntax requires the variables
of one function to be accessible from
another function. This is because the
expression being edited is stored in the
variable x by the function edv. This
variable is used in several other
functions that are called by edv, such
as ins, chel, addarg, inel, delel, testel,
and stoped. If your LISP does not allow
this, there are two possible solutions.
You could make x a global variable by
changing the argument of edv to an-
other variable, say *x\ and write (setq
x *x*) directly after (prog (curs com)).
The other solution is to pass x as an
argument to the functions listed above.
Not all LISPs have the setf function.
This allows you to assign values to
parts of data structures as if they were
variables. The functions that use this
are edv, chel, addarg, inel, delel, and

ins. These will have to be changed to
use rplaca and rplacd. In addition,
several functions use (setf (in ...)...).
These will have to be changed to calls
to ins.

The input and output functions of
other LISPs are obviously going to be
different. The following are the input
and output functions that BYSO uses.

The tyo function takes an ASCII code
and displays it at the current cursor
position, then moves the cursor one
character to the right. Most LISPs will
have either this function or another
function that does the same thing.

The tyk function, defined in Visual
Syntax, returns the next key from the
keyboard. The low byte of the returned
value is the ASCII value, which is zero
for arrow and function keys. The high
byte is the IBM scan code. References
to the tyk function are made in edv,
readel, testexp, and stoped.

The msg function prints out its argu-
ments without much formatting. For

example, there are no quotes printed
around strings. In addition, (msg t)
prints a newline. This function is used
in defund, chel, readel, inel, testexp,
and ask. Split the msg into several
other function calls, using pstring for
strings, terpri for newlines. and print for
ordinary LISP expressions.

The setc function is used to set the
cursor position. Its argument is the
address of the cursor, which is two
times the x position plus 160 times the
y position. Most LISPs should have
similar functions.

For LISPs not implemented on the
IBM PC. Visual Syntax uses extended
codes to draw the boxes, lines, arrows,
etc. These characters are used in vsdl
through vsd4 and adj. The characters
are shown in table I . It should not be
hard converting Visual Syntax to work
on other LISPs running on terminals
with direct cursor addressing, but on
systems with teletypes and dumb ter-
minals, it is more of a challenge.

140 BYTE ' FEBRUARY 1986

Avocet puts you in the chips!

Now you can use your PC to
develop software for virtually
any microprocessor. Quickly.
Easily. Inexpensively.

THE AVOCET

CROSS-ASSEMBLER FAMILY.

Avocet

Target

CP/M-86

Cross-

Micro-

IBM PC,

assembler

processor

CP/M*-80

MSDOS**

XASM04

6804

$250.00

$250.00

XASM05

6805

200.00

250.00

XASM09

6809

200.00

250.00

XASM18

1802/1805

200.00

250.00

XASM48

8048/8041

200.00

250.00

XASM51

8051

200.00

250.00

XASM65

6502/65C02

200.00

250.00

XASM68

6800/01,6301

200.00

250.00

XASM75

NEC 7500

500.00

500.00

XASM85

8085

250.00

250.00

XASM400

COP400

300.00

300.00

XASMF8

F8/3870

300.00

300.00

XASMZ8

Z8

200.00

250.00

XASMZ80

Z80

250.00

250.00

XASM681 1

68HC11

250.00

250.00

XASM180

HD64180

250.00

250.00

XMAC682

68200

595.00

595.00

XMAC68K

68000/68010

595.00

595.00

* Trademark of Digital Research

** Trademark of Microsoft

Avocet cross-assemblers, simu-
lators, emulators and EPROM
programmers will help put your
design ideas into more chips than
any other software development
system on the market. You don't
need a mainframe, or even a dedi-
cated system. All you need is a
PC, a good idea. ..and Avocet. It's
as simple as that.

Avocet has been creating tools
for software development since
1979 to help design engineers find
easier and more productive ways
to develop software for virtually
any microprocessor- without

switching development systems.
Our customers turn ideas into
real products. From data entry
through assembly, debugging and
final EPROMs, Avocet has every-
thing you need to transform your
personal computer into a fully
integrated development system.

Cross-assembler capabilities.

No matter what the application, our
family of cross-assemblers runs
on any computer with CP/M* or
DOS and processes assembly lan-
guage for most microprocessors.

Taking the bugs out.

' Avocet's new debug-
ging tools will eliminate
"crash and burn"
from your vocabu-
lary in two ways.
First, AVSIM software
simulator/debuggers allow you to
test program modules on your
PC. No special hardware is
required for executing your target
code interpretively in a crash-proof,
interactive environment. AVSIM's
full screen display lets you see at a
glance what your program is doing.
When you're ready to test your
program in a working model,
Avocet's TRICE in-circuit emulators
allow you to examine target
memory and register, set break-
points, single-step, trace and
more. A standard serial interface
lets you control emulation and
download code from your PC.

And best of all, TRICE costs
less than $500.

Progressive EPROM
programming.

Avocet AVPROM programmers
work with over 37 different
devices including EPROMs
through 27512, CMOS and E 2
PROMs, and MPU/EPROM
combos using fast "adaptive"
algorithms. These intelligent,
self-contained units work with
any personal computer using
Avocet's GDX driver software.

Made to order.

You don't have to come to Maine
to get Avocet products (unless, of
course, you want a really great
lobster dinner).
Just call, toll-free,

1.800-448-8500

(in the U.S. except Alaska
and Hawaii)
and we'll rush out your order,
send out more information, or, if
you want, talk about some of your
great ideas. Avocet Systems Inc.,
RO. Box 490-B8, Rockport, Maine
04856. (207) 236-9055. Telex:
467210 AVOCET CI

AVOCET J{
SYSTEMS INC,

Inquiry 31

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 141

Inquiry 141

The
Enhancement
Specfa/ist

POWER TOOLS

For The |at|st
Version olli/lsil

QUICKREPORT™

dBASE Report Writer

• Prints any kind of report or form

• Up to 6 databases per report!!

• Use bold, italics, etc.

• Incredibly easy to use

• No programming required

QUICKCODE III™

dBASE Program Generator

With many features not found in
dBASE including:

• Create PRG files automatically

• Data entry programs

• Data input error checking

• Computed fields & totals

• Link up to 8 databases!

• Customize programs yourself
Why write programs yourself?

Let QUICKCODE III do it!

dGRAPH III™

dBASE Graphics System

• Pie, line, bar charts

• Printer, plotter, or CRT

• Many automatic features

^TdUTILIirPLUS

^ dBASE Program Utility

• Finds program errors

• Improves code

• Saves time
^Cross-reference listings

VISUAL PROGRAMMING

significant number of nonstandard
functions to display pictures at
various locations on the screen and
to print the boxes and arrows. These
functions come from BYSO LISP, al-
though they could be adapted to
other LISP dialects quite easily (see
the text box "Making Visual Syntax
Work on Other LISPs"). However,
Visual Syntax makes heavy use of
dynamic binding, so on LISPs without
dynamic binding, it would require a
lot of work.

As the main routine, vsdl decides
which of the other routines should
handle the argument. The routine
vsdl is also a good example of data-
driven programming. There are two
functions in Visual Syntax that are not
displayed in the normal manner:
defun and quote. The display func-
tions for these are called defund and
quoted. These functions are entered
into the property list of defun and
quote. When vsdl recognizes a
display function in the property list,
it will call that display function rather
than the standard display function.
This is superior to comparing for
defun or quote because it makes it
easier to modify and also keeps the
program much more modular.

The routine vsdl returns a screen
address of the lower left corner of the
displayed object. This is so vsd4
knows where to put the next argu-
ment without overwriting part of the
screen.

The routine vsd2 is a very simple
function that takes an atom to display
and the screen address of the upper
right corner and displays the atom. It
returns the lower left corner.

The routine vsd3 takes a function to
display and the screen address of the
upper right corner. It displays the
function in a box and returns the
screen address of the place to put an
arrow in (for vsd4).

The function vsd4 does most of the
work. It takes a list of arguments to
display and the value returned by
vsd3. It displays all arguments in the
list, with arrows pointing into the box
to the right. It returns screen ad-
dresses for the size of the box to the
right and the lower left corner of the

Tkble I: ASCII codes used by the

Visual Syntax editor to generate lines,

arrows, and boxes.

Character

ASCII code

- >

26

I

179

~]

191

L

192

h

195

—

196

J

217

r

218

list of arguments.

Adj simply adjusts the size of a box
to make sure the box is big enough
to accept all arrows pointing in from
the left. It returns the lower left corner
of the displayed function along with
all its arguments.

Highlighting is handled by the func-
tion highlt.

A screen address is computed by
2*{x+80*y). The command (setc adr)
will move the blinking underline (as
opposed to the cursor described
below) to the screen address. Also,
the built-in function tyo prints one
character. It takes one argumentative
ASCII code of the character. 'The
ASCII codes for some of the charac-
ters used by Visual Syntax are shown
in table I.

Editing Command Routines

The main body of the editor is han-
dled by the edv function. Frankly, the
edv function is not an example of
good programming style, as it is too
large. Most of the body of the func-
tion is just (if ( = (low com) xxx ) yyy )
repeated over and over. This could be
replaced by a list. However, edv
works, and it is reasonably fast.

The editing commands c, i, d, a, and
t are handled by the functions chel,
inel, delel, addarg, andtestel, respec-
tively. These functions are fairly
straightforward, and they work by list
surgery when it is necessary to
change anything.

The functions chel, inel, and addarg
must have either an atom or a func-
tion to complete their particular
editing tasks. To do this, they call

{continued)

142 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

ss^f^'

the

Turbo

/■ CyifPIl™ With Turbo ASYNCH, you can be in constant

/M §; n if n touch with the world without ever leaving
the console. Rapid transit at its bestTurbo ASYNCH ^designed
to let you incorporate asynchronous communication capabilities
■ into your Turbo Pascal application programs,. and } it will drive any
asynchronous device via the RS232 ports, like printers, plotters,
modems or even other computers: Turbo ASYNCH is fast, accurate
and lives up to its specs. Features include...

♦ Initialization of the COM ports allowing you to. set alttransmis- ,
sion options. ♦ Interrupt processing. ♦ Data transfer between cir 1
<:ular queues and communications ports..* Simultaneous buffered
input and output Jo both COM ports. ♦ Transmission speeds up
; to 9600 Baud. ♦ Input and output queues as large as you wish.
+ XON/XOFF protocol.

The underlying functionsof Turbo ASYNCH are carefully crafted
In assemblerfor efficiency, and drive the if ART and programmable
interrupt controller chips directly. These functions, installed as a
runtime resident system, require just 3,2K bytes.. The interface to
the assembler* routines is written in Turbo Pascal. .

The Turbo Pascal PERFORMANCE PACKAGE 1 " is for the serious'
Turbo Pascal programmer who wantsquality tools to develop appli-
cations. Every system comes with a comprehensive User Reference
Manual, all source code and useful sample programs. They require
an IBM PC or compatible, utilizing MS-DOS version 2.0 or later.
There are no royalties for incorporating PERFORMANCE PACKAGE
functions into your applications.

Turbo
POWER TOOLS

Jurbo POWER TOOLS is a \
sleek new, series of procedures
designed specifically to complement Turbo Pascal on IBM and com-
patible computers. Every component in Turbo POWER TOOLS is
precision engineered to giveyou fluid and responsive handling, with
ail the options.you need packed into its clean lines: High perform-
ance and full instrumentation, including. t \

♦ Extensive string handling to complement the powerful Turbo
Pascal functions. 4 Screen support and 'window management, giv-
ing you fast 'direct access to "the screen without using BIOS calls;

♦ Access to BIOS and DOSi services, including DOS 3.0 and the
IBM AT * Full program control by allowing you to execute any
other program from within your Turbo Pascal application. . ♦ Inter-
rupt service routines written entirety in Jurbo Pascal, Assernbly
code is not required even to. service hardware interrupts like the .
keyboard Wclock.

YES send S'oTu^w lor st*

| 6VW

\ name:
I stopping

phone'..

I

Turbo POWER TOOLS and Turbo ASYNCH sell for $99. 95 each,
and they may be orderecl directly from piaise • _. \ . ";.'
Computing Inc. To order, call £&>

(415) 540-5441. .. BLAISE COMPUTING INC.

CW

Turbo. Pascal is a trademark ot Borland '
International. Turbo POWER TOOLS, Turbo '
ASYNCH and PEREORMANCEPACKAGE are
trademarks ol Blaise Computing inc. IBMJ's a registered .
trademark qf Internationl Busine

MS-DOS is ^trademark ol Microsoft Qqrporatibn.

Inquiry 37 for End-Users. Inquiry 38 fQr DEALERS ONLY

2034 BLAKE STREET
BERKELEY.iCA 94704
♦ (415)540-5441,'

FEBRUARY 1986 ■ • BYT E 143

Inquiry 117

HOW TO JUSTIFY A LASER PRINTER

You'd love to have one of those high-speed laser printers.

But aren't they hard to cost-justify? Not if you

have two or more computers that you

want to hook up.

WITH PrintDirector

What's PrintDirector?
It's a product family of buf-
fered, intelligent printer mana-
gers that allows you to more than
cost-justify that laser printer. It lets you
hook up minis, PCs, modems, multiple prin-
ters, parallel and serial . . . you name it. Any
mix of models and makes. It can even be a Print
Server in a larger LAN. The buffer (60KB to 500KB)
provides concurrent input and output. It handles different
baud rates and protocols. No cable or switch flipping. No mod-
ifications to your hardware or software. For more information on
PrintDirector, the ultimate in printer managers, call or write:

JMntDirector

Digital Products Inc. • The Simple Network Solution Company

600 Pleasant Street, Watertown MA 02172

(617) 924-1680 (Outside Mass., call 1-800-243-2333)

Prices start at $645.

StaiPac '" is No Longer the

Best Statistical Analysis Package

in the World

INTRODUCING

A NEW DIMENSION IN STATISTICAL SOFTWARE

► Windows ► Graphics ► Help Screens ► Faster

► Interactive & Batch ► More Variables ► More Analyses

► Easier to Learn & Use ► Command Driven

From

VA

WALONICK ASSOCIATES

We're on the Move!

1-800-328-4907

6500 Nicollet Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN 55423

(612) 866-9022

In Europe: Molinnerx,Ltd..1BuckhurstRd..TownHallSquare.Bexhill-on-Sea. E.Sussex, England Tel: (0424)220391

VISUAL PROGRAMMING

readel, which asks the user Change
to a)tom or function? and uses read
to input a value.

All editing commands use tyk for in-
put from the keyboard. This calls the
BIOS (basic input/output system) to
receive one key from the keyboard. It
returns 2 56 times the scan code, plus
the ASCII code. The ASCII code is
used only for letters, numbers, and
symbols (plus a few special functions
such as space, backspace, tab, escape,
and enter) where the scan code is
unimportant. The ASCII code is not
used for arrows, function keys, etc., so
the scan code is used. The LISP func-
tions high and low pick out the scan
code and ASCII code, respectively.

The Future of Picture
Programs

As mentioned earlier, picture pro-
grams work best for functional-style
programming as in LISP. Picture pro-
grams would also be very interesting
for a logic programming style similar
to Prolog's. However, this has not
been done yet, to my knowledge.
' It would be very exciting to be able
to click function icons with a mouse
and have a very simple user interface.
This would combine the ease of use
of menu-driven software with the
power of a real programming lan-
guage. It would be especially exciting
if you could access control structures
from icons, too.

This may be the real future of soft-
ware, since it addresses the two major
needs of users at the same time: clari-
ty and power.

[ Editor's note: The source code for two ver-
sions of the Visual Syntax editor are available
for downloading from BYTEnet Listings. The
first is SMALLVSD, which requires an IBM
PC and the BYSO LISP interpreter and is
described in this article. The second,
XLISPVSD, is an adaptation of the Visual
Syntax editor for an IBM PC with XL1SP
1.5c. a public-domain LISP interpreter also
available on BYTEnet Listings. The number
is (617) 861-9764. FIB, the source code for
the Fibanacci function, is also available.

The complete Visual Syntax editor is in-
cluded with BYSO LISP, a LISP interpreter
available from Levien Instrument
Company] ■

144 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 3 50

1 1 !! 1S

m ' "n iMi 1

I •■■_ _ j H

M

IUII

H ..

I |B5llill

1

[jgwH

J ftrTlfr M MI gifrK ii~* ^^»

»

iiiiiiiiiiiiii I

i

•;&■ •■-■■■■ • ■ua^viRi i

Hi I I pifl n , I HH ■

■dpi' SSBEm sSSBBBflSSSEf ^EESBBBjBBCBQf

l^^^v,:..,....-. ,^V%k ■

a

« ■ i WW—

.z:

illllllfi I

"^j^Mta

I IllilJlllllllllll i

■
iliifllllli

|-wvvc-.-.^^ ■

4 1 i

ii i ■■ in (i r——

I

jgg/ggg/gji

i

iniii iMfcM.i I

iiifiiiiiitiiiiii

"ririim ■■!,!■■

v-> T'U

^ffiPMl

¥,;'?R:|! j

IP^^^I '* ■ /he:

uniHiiiiiHiiix

WfeVe the people who tell
the PC how to think

And every morning, we give

MS-DOS.

Its the operating system that gives most com-
puters their start. The system that is the brains of
every IBM® PC. By definition, you cant be IBM
compatible unless you're Microsoft compatible.

In short, most computers in the world wont
make a move without Microsoft. When you're
shopping for application software, neither
should you.

Because we enjoy a degree of technological
intimacy with the PC which simply cant be
matched by anyone else. And helps explain why
our programs exploit so brilliantly the capacities
of IBM PCs and their compatibles. Programs we
modestly label, "The High Performance Software!'

An advertising boast. And eminently sup-
portable.

Just as we keep advancing MS-DOS® itself (now
in Version 3.1), we keep expanding the capacities
of our applications. And matching those increased
abilities with disk based tutorials, on-line help,
and a superb system of direct telephone support.

The product of all this is a line of applications
which combine a common sense operating style.
Which makes them immediately usable. Along
with an extraordinary depth of features. Which will
be there to meet the demands you'll make as your
computing abilities grow.

Microsoft® Word
The ultimate means of committing ideas to paper.

Whether you're writing a simple memo, or a
major proposal requiring elaborate formatting,
the sophisticated editing, outlining and
formatting capabilities of Word get
you finished raster. (In fact, this
program is so advanced, we
now offer a special
version that takes
full advantage of
networks.)

Word's organizing
ability is supplied free
(thru February 28, '86)
in the form of Ready!? 1

the memory-resident outline processor from the
makers of ThinkTank™

Once your thoughts are organized on screen,
what you see is what gets printed out. Like Bold-
face, underline , italics, subscript* and superscript
Instead of hieroglyphics. So you don't have to keep
printing drafts until you finally get what you want.

When you are ready, Word runs all popular

printers. Including the latest laser printers. Which
Word will drive to absolutely stunning feats. So you
can produce at your desk, document quality not
previously seen outside a print shop.

Meanwhile, Word's ability to open windows lets
you display multiple Word files on screen simul-
taneously. Making it extremely easy to cut and paste
between documents. Or construct something new
from what you've already written. Furthermore,
you can instantly recall standard passages, phrases,
or terms from Word's Glossary. And from the
Stylesheet, all your standard formats.

All Word's abilities, from the basic to the most
sophisticated can be learned easily as you go. A
comprehensive Computer Based Training disk is
included with the program. An interactive instruc- m
tion system so highly evolved, it coaches you to

proficiency at any pace you like.

Microsoft Word. When you want to get your
story out fast.

Microsoft Multiplan?
The spreadsheet millions count on*

Our Multiplan spreadsheet is already running
on over one million computers. Now the MS-
DOS version has been enhanced.
The worksheet is bigger. Anj
expanded matrix of
255x4095 adds up to
over a million cells.
New Multiplan calci
up to four times faster

\ ■: -'

,'-

5,000,000 computers the boot

than first generation Multiplan. (And faster than
even the latest version of 1-2-3® in most uses.)
While Multiplan macros reduce repetitive
command sequences to a single keystroke.

Multiplan reads and writes 1-2-3 files with one
deft command. So you can share spreadsheets
painlessly from PC to PC. Its also the only spread-
sheet that offers linking. Along with true model
consolidation. (In batches, or one at a time.) All
in one command.

So you can overwhelm those huge models. Not
vice versa.

Yet, for all its power, Multiplan is a breeze to
manage. Like you, it works intuitively. So you can
deal with the most demanding jobs quickly
and naturally.

If you're looking for your basic super spreadsheet
—without the super pricetag— Multiplan is the
one you'll want. In a crunch.

Microsoft Chart*
For best performance in a supporting role*

Chart, which from the start has stood at the
top in business graphics, is now offered in a
new version. And a real dazzler it is.
When you're the one making
the presentation, Chart
backs you up with
superior firepower in
support of your
arguments. Not only in
black and white.,*.

Mwt

r JS*

#>> #

and on paper, but in vibrant color, directly on high-
resolution 35mm slides and overheads. And of
course, Chart drives all the popular dot matrix
printers, laser printers, and color plotters.

No other program comes near Chart's versatile
talents. Choose from 177 colors. And graph formats
of every description: bar, area, pie, column, high-
low, and scatter charts. Up to 16 charts to a page.
Add text anywhere in countless type styles. Move,
size, or shift.

And now Chart links directly with Lotus® 1-2-3.
As well as Microsoft Multiplan. So when the
numbers change, the charts change, automatically.
It works wonders, too, with VisiCalcf dBASE
Illf R:BASE 5000? and a chorus of others.

So before you face another meeting, prepare
yourself with Microsoft Chart. And enjoy the
advantage of graphic superiority.

Microsoft Access*
The great communicator*

Access is our highly acclaimed new contribu-
tion to communication. Your link to the vast infor-
mation stored in data services and your company
mainframe. Because Access has the brains to take
you by the hand and walk you through these often
frustrating mazes.

It comes with menus for the most popular
services, including Dow Jonesf M CompuServe?
MCI Mail? EasyLinkr OAG? and NewsNet SM

Even better, Access gives you a way to simplify
virtually any communication scenario. Using
MASC, the powerful Access communication
language, you create your own custom menus.

And with Access, you can even automate your
telecom sessions. Simply invoke the programs

learn function, and Access watches and
permanently records the entire command

sequence.

4

In addition, Access gives you an
unprecedented array of juggling skills.
Carry on eight communication
sessions concurrently (using the
X.PC protocol)

w " y m ^

displaying them each in their own window. Con-
tact two data services through two modems at
once. Edit on-line or off line, and export that data
into programs like 1-2-3 and Multiplan.

So you could, for instance, monitor every
stock exchange. Collect quotes and price histories.
Edit that info for a report. While sending the
updated numbers to your spreadsheet. And do it
routinely.

Microsoft Access. When you need to dig out
information, it's a bulldozer.

Microsoft Project*
So you won't get buried by major undertakings*

This is the program that brings method to the
madness of long and complex enterprises. Tasks
made more manageable by Microsoft Projects
adaptability. And by its easy-to-learn, uniquely
intuitive operating style.

Unlike other programs, ours doesn't make you
do drudge work. Instead, you simply enter data
like you do on a spreadsheet. Then Microsoft
Project cranks out the Pert and Gantt charts for you.

You get all the features you need to get a handle
on any logistical problem. Including Plan versus
Actual tracking.

And scheduling from minutes to months.

We also make sure it won't be a major project
to learn Microsoft Project. Included with the
software is a complete course on a Computer
Based Training disk. A uniquely talented teacher
with the ability to "coax" you to success.

Microsoft Project. It makes sure the best laid
plans get carried out on schedule.

Microsoft Mouse*
When pointing is quicker than typing*

The new Microsoft Mouse is designed to exploit
fully the abilities of Microsoft Word and Windows,
Microsoft Project and Multiplan 2.0. If you use
programs like Lotus 1-2-3, WordStarf Display Write f
our Mouse will run them more efficiently,

Take advantage of Mouse mobility to skip
through paragraphs, highlight sentences or entire
passages. And initiate commands with a mere
point-click.

In addition, much of what you are doing by
hand today can be automated through our Mouse
Menus. Which translate multiple key commands
and mouse moves into a one mouse-click
operation.

The Microsoft Mouse even includes a free
graphic bonus — PC Paintbrush™ A color paint pro-
gram that can liven up any paper presentation.

MS-DOS applications from "MS" itself. For
running your PC, your life, or your business,
everything you need to know is our name.

After all, most of the world's computers take
their instructions from us. When you're shopping
for software, so should you.

Microsoft

The High Performance Software™

For the name of your nearest Microsoft dealer, or to get upgrade information, call (800) 426-9400.
In Washington State and Alaska, (206) 828-8088. In Canada, call (800) 387-6616.

Microsoft. MS-DOS and Multiplan are registered trademarks and
The High Performance Software is a trademark of Microsoft
Corporation. Ready! and Th'irklank are trademarks of Living
Videotext, Inc. IBM is a registered trademark of International
Business Machines Corporation. Lotus and 1-2-3 are registered
trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation.

148 BYTE ' FEBRUARY 1986

Dow Jones News/Retrieval is a registered trademark of Dow Jones
&. Company. CompuServe is a registered trademark of CompuServe
Incorporated. MCI Mail is a registered service mark of MCI
Communications Corp. Easy Link is a service mark of the Western
Union Telegraph Company. O AG is a registered trademark of
Official Airline Guides. Inc. NewsNet is a registered service mark
of NewsNet, Inc.

PC Paintbrush is a trademark of ZSof t.

WordStar is a registered trademark of MicroPro International
Corporation. DisplayWrite is a registered trademark of International
Business Machines Corporation. VisiCalc is a registered trademark
of VisiCorp.

PROGRAMMING INSIGHT

MOLECULES
IN COLOR

by John J. Farrell

A program that displays molecules
on an RGB monitor

Editor's note: \n response to the
article "Viewing Molecules with
the Macintosh" by Earl J.
Kirkland (February 1985, page
2 5 1), we have received a number
of program submissions. Several
of these were adaptations of the
MODEL3D program for_ the
IBM Personal Computer, while
others used different types of nota-
tion, added color, or added special
effects. The following piece is. in
our opinion, the best of the sub-
missions.

COLOR3D.BAS is a BASIC
program for the IBM PC. It

has most of the features of

the original MODEL3D.BAS
by Earl J. Kirkland. However, it dis-
plays molecules on an RGB (red-
green-blue) monitor as collections of
colored disks that represent the in-
dividual atoms of the molecules.

Like MODEL3D.BAS, COLOR3D.BAS
has a three-dimensional perspective-
atoms closer to you appear larger
than atoms that are farther away. The
program displays molecules in the xz
plane (x is horizontal, z is vertical), and
you can rotate molecules about the
z-axis (azimuthal rotation) or about

Photo 1: Iwo molecules of pentaborane, B 5 H 9 . Hydrogen
is white: boron is magenta-and-white checked.

the x-axis (polar rotation).

Photo I, for example, shows a
screen shot of two molecules of pen-
taborane, B 5 H 9 , that were drawn by
COLOR3D.BAS. The top molecule is
closer to you than the lower one.

Photo 2 shows another example, tri-
carbonyl(benzene)chromium(0),
Cr(C 6 H 6 ) (CO) 3 . Photo 3 is sodium
chloride, NaCl (table salt). Finally,
photo 4 shows para-aminobenzoic
acid, NH 2 C 6 H 4 COOH (PABA-a sun-
screen agent). In these photos,

hydrogen atoms are white,
carbon is cyan, oxygen is
magenta, chromium is
magenta-and-cyan checked,
nitrogen is a mixture of
cyan and magenta dots that
appears blue, and boron
atoms are magenta-and-
white checked.

The Program

Although the SCREEN 1
command in IBM PC
BASICA limits the number
of colors to four (including
the background color), an
infinite number of patterns

are available by using

BASICAs tiling capabilities
(in DOS 2.0 or later). COLOR3D.BAS
has 24 colors built into it, as shown
in photo 5. You can change or add to
these patterns as desired.

lb use COLOR3D.BAS, you must
first write a data file, which will be
called by the program. Figure I shows
the data file for tricarbonyl(benzene)

(continued)
]ohn J. Farrell PhD. (Chemistry Department.
Franklin and Marshall College. Lancaster, PA
1 7604), is chairman of the chemistry depart-
ment and associate professor of chemistry.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 149

MOLECULES IN COLOR

Photo 2: One molecule of tricarbonyl(benzene)chrorniurn(0),
Cr(C 6 H 6 )(CO) 3 . Hydrogen is white, carbon is cyan, oxygen is
magenta, and chromium is magenta-and-cyan checked.

Photo 3: Common table salt, sodium chloride, NaCi Sodium
is Easter-egg pattern, and chlorine is cyan-and-white striped.

Photo 4: A sunscreen agent, para-aminobenzoic acid,
NH 2 C 6 H 4 COOH (PABA). Hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen are
colored as in photo 2; nitrogen is cyan and magenta dots.

Photo 5: The 24 colors and patterns available with program
COLOR3D.BAS. The patterns are numbered from 1 to 24
proceeding left to right, top to bottom row.

chromium(O). Each line of the data file
represents a different atom, and the
data includes color (1 to 24); x. y, and
z coordinates (in angstroms); and
atomic radius (in angstroms). Coor-
dinate data may be found in a number
of sources, including Crystal Structures
by R. W. G. Wyckoff (volumes 1-6,
John Wiley & Sons, 1951) and the jour-
nal Acta Crystallographica. In writing your
data files, you may choose whatever
colors you like for the atoms, using
photo 5 as a guide.

You can write data files for mole-
cules using any word processor, or

you can write a BASIC program to
generate them. Listing I, for example,
is DATAGEN.BAS, a BASIC program
that I used to generate the data file
in figure 1. A generator program lets
you make changes in the data file
(such as the color of a particular ele-
ment) more readily, by changing the
appropriate parameters in the genera-
tor file.

COLOR3D.BAS begins by asking
you to supply the name of the data
file, the rotation angles, the viewing
distance, and the magnitude of the
atoms. An error message will result if

the viewing distance is too small (in-
side the crystal). If this happens, rerun
the program with a larger viewing
distance. If the atomic coordinates
and radii are in angstroms, a
magnitude of I will give touching
spheres.

The program uses a rather complex
sequence of painting and repainting
to avoid two problems. First, it in-
dicates the edge of each atom by a
black circle; these lines must be
painted over when the atom is hidden
or partially hidden. Second, colored

{continued)

150 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Jt<W»!!m&

wss

V

W

Triple your PC speed for only $799!

8087 Upgrades"

MicroWay is the world leader in 8087 support Our
8087 development software has been in use since
1 982. By 1 984 we had become Intel's 97th largest
OEM account When you buy from us, you can be con-
fident that you will receive the 8087 chip designed for
your PC and that our unique diagnostics will instantly
verify that your processor works correctly as installed.
Call for current prices.

287Turbo m

This card plugs into the 80287 socket on your AT or
COMPAQ, doubling the 80287 clock from 4 to 8 Mhz.
It does not change the 80286 clock speed or affect
your warranty. The card comes with an 8 Mhz 80287 •
and has provisions for faster crystals as better 80287s
become available. It also has a reset button and circuit
that provide a hardware alternative to CNTRL-ALT-DEL
287Turbo with Diagnostics and Reset ... $395

Micro
May-

Inquiry 228

Number Smasher™

Number Smasher gives you AT speed and 1 00% com-
patibility with all PC software and hardware. It comes
with a 1 Mhz 8086 and 51 2 K of no wait state RAM.
Most are shipped with an optional matched 10 Mhz
8087 and 1 28K daughterboard. The card runs pro-
grams a factor of 2.5 to 4.0 faster than the PC, XT or
compatibles it runs in. Other features include
FASTROM, a Ram Disk, Print Spooler and Disk Cache.
Revision 2 of the Smasher is designed and manufac-
tured by MicroWay in the U.S.A. and has the best
service and support of any accelerator card.

MegaPage

MicroWays "Lotus/Intel" extended memory card has
all the features of the others plus one: it uses low
power, cool running CMOS DRAM. Ask for our
pamphlet "Extended vs Expanded Memory" and learn
why MegaPage is the right card for you.
MegaPage with 2 Megabytes CMOS $549

The World Leader in 8087 Support

Number Smasher, MegaPage and 287Turbo are trademarks of MicroWay, Inc. MicroWay is a registered trademark of MicroWay, Inc

MOLECULES IN COLOR

Listing 1 : The BASIC program used to generate the data (He
in figure I. The unit cell is monoclinic.

100 • Program to generate a data file for Cr(C6H6)(C0)3.

105 ' Page 5 of Vol 6 of Crystal Structures by Wyckoff.

107 ' Unit cell is monoclinic.

110 INPUT "Output file name:"; FILE$

120 OPEN FILES FOR OUTPUT AS #1

130 SIZ=1.4 : COL = 8

140 A = 6.17 :

B = 11.07 : C = 6.57 : BETA = 101.

150 X = .3319 :

Y=.25 :

Z - .0225

160 GOSUB 1000

200 SIZ» .7 : COL - 1

'ring carbons

210 X - .1804 :

Y=.3119

: Z —.2973

220 GOSUB 2000

230 X « .3761 :

Y-.3769

: Z —.2273

240 GOSUB 2000

250 X = .5738 :

Y=.3142

: Z —.1598

260 GOSUB 2000

270 SIZ= .64

'carbonyl carbons

280 X = .5538 :

Y=.25 :

Z =+.2557

290 GOSUB 1000

300 X = .1827 :

Y=.3642

: Z =+.1453

310 GOSUB 2000

320 SIZ= .49: COL = 2

'carbonyl oxygens

330 X = .6899 :

Y=.25 :

Z =+.4002

340 GOSUB 1000

350 X = .0894 :

Y=.4341

: Z =+.2248

360 GOSUB 2000

400 SIZ= .38: COL = 3

'hydrogens

410 X - .028 :

Y=.361

: Z —.35

420 GOSUB 2000

430 X = .376 :

Y=.474

: Z —.227

440 GOSUB 2000

450 X « .728 :

Y-.363

: Z —.107

460 GOSUB 2000

999 GOTO 5000

1000 WRITE #1,

COL, (X -

- Z*SIN((BETA - 90)*3.1415

*A,Y*B,(Z*COS((BETA - 90)*3. 14159/180))*C,SIZ

1020 RETURN

2000 WRITE #1, COL, (X - Z*SIN((BETA - 90)*3. 14159/180))

*A,Y*B,(Z*COS((BETA - 90)*3. 14159/180))*C,SIZ

2020 WRITE #1, COL, (X - Z*SIN((BETA - 90)*3. 14159/180))

*A,(.5-Y)*B,(Z*C0S((BETA - 90)*3. 14159/180))*C,SIZ

2040 RETURN

5000 CLOSE #1: END

8,2.0201 46,2.7675,.1448574,1. 4
1 ,1.478777,3.452733, - 1 .914049, .7
1 ,1 .478777,2.082267, - 1 .914049..7
1 ,2.600139,4.1 72283, - 1 .463382,. 7
1 ,2.6001 39,1 .36271 7, - 1 .463382,7
1 ,3.736916,3.478194, -1.028809..7
1,3.736916,2.056806,- 1.028809, .7
1,3. 102409,2.7675,1. 646224,.64
1 ,.9485256,4.031 694,.9354568,.64
1,. 9485256, 1.503306..9354568..64
2,3.764398,2.7675,2.57653, .49
2..275071 7,4.805487,1. 447286,.49
2..2750717,. 729513, 1.447286..49
3, .6032948,3.99627, - 2.253337,.38
3, .6032948,1 .53873, - 2.253337,.38
3,2.599153,5.24718, -1.461 45,.38
3,2.599153,.2878199,-1.46145,.38
3,4.62338,4.01 841 , - .6888774,.38
3,4.62338,1 .51 659, - .6888774, .38

Figure I : The data file for Cr(C 6 H 6 )
(CO) 3 . tricarbonyl(benzene)chromium(0) .

patterns from previously tiled pat-
terns must not supply a terminating
condition for tiling atoms that are
closer to the viewer. I have not, as yet
encountered a situation in which the
program has failed to avoid these
problems. The program takes 20 to 40
seconds to draw a molecule.

Conclusion

COLOR3D.BAS lets you generate dis-
plays of molecules in color on the IBM
PC or compatibles. Each type of atom
is easily identified because it has a dif-
ference in color or pattern than other
types of atoms. This program should
be helpful to scientists and students
who wish to understand the relation-
ship between molecular structure and
chemical behavior. | Editor's note:
COLOR3D.BAS and DATAGEN.BAS are
available for downloading from BYTEnet
Listings at (61 7) 861-9764. Also, a number
of data files are available for individual
molecules, along with a data file that produces
the patterns in photo 5, all of which have
names with a .DAT extension, such as BEN-
ZEN E.DAT. You will need an IBM PC or
compatible with BASICA and an RGB moni-
tor to run the program. You can also obtain
these listings on disk. See page 3 50 for
details] ■

152 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

TTTTTrtWTfl

YOU'RE LOOKING AT

4,096 GDLQRS

^CHANNEL STEREO

32 INSTRUMENTS

8SPRITES

3-D ANIMATION

25 DMA CHANNELS

A BIT BUTTER

AND

A MALE AND FEMALE VOICE.

ONIX AMIGA GIVES YOU ALL THIS AND A 68000 PROCESSOR/TOO.

Three custom VLSI chips working in combi- m
nation with the main processor give Amiga"
graphic dazzle, incredible musical ability
and animation skill.

And they make Amiga the only com
puter with a multi-tasking operating syste
built into hardware.

All these capabilities are easy to tap
because Amiga's open architecture pro- .
vides you with access to the 68000 main
bus in addition to the serial, parallel and ,
floppy disk connectors. Complete tech-
nical manuals enable you to take full L.

advantage of the custom chips and the
software support routines in the writable
control store on the Kickstart™ disk that
comes with every Amiga computer

You can access these resources in a
number of development languages, includ-
ing Amiga Macro Assembler,™ Amiga C, Amiga
Basic (Microsoft®— Basic for the Amiga),
Amiga Pascal and even Amiga LISP.
So Amiga not only gives you more
creativity it gives you creative
new ways to use it.

Amiga by Commodore.

GIVES YOU A CREATIVE EDGE,

" Amiga is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. '"Kickstart is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga Inc.
"Amiga Macro Assembler is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. ®Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft, Inc.

It's amazing what you
can reveal wnenyou strip.

The Cauzin Softstrip System Reader replaces tedious typing by scanning the strip
and reading it into your computer.

Introducing a shape that's about to turn on an
entire industry.

The Softstrip™ data strip. From Cauzin.

This new technology allows text, graphics, and
data to be
encoded on a
strip of papei;
then easily
entered into

your computer using a scanning device called the
Cauzin Softstrip™ System Reader.

Creating a simple, reliable and cost efficient
way to distribute and retrieve information.

Softstrip data strips, like those you see here, can
contain anything that can be put on magnetic disks.

Facts. Figures. Software programs.

Video games. Product demonstrations.
Sheet music.

••.■-.

The Cauzin Softstrip System Reader is now
compatible with the IBM PC, Apple II and Macintosh.

A single strip can hold up to 5500 bytes of
encoded data.

It can stand up to wrinkles, scratches, ink
marks, even coffee stains.

And it can be entered into your computer with
a higher degree of reliability than most magnetic media.

Z Business Subroutines

Simply by plugging the Cauzin Reader into your
serial or cassette port andplacing it over the strip.

The reader scans the strip, converts it to com-
puter code, and feeds it into any standard communi-
n cation interface.

Because strips are so easy to gen-
erate, most of your favorite magazines
and books will soon be using them in
addition to long lists of program code.

And you'll
be able to enter
programs with-
out typing a
single line.

There is
also software for
you to generate
your own strips.
Letting you
send every-
thing from correspondence to business information
using our new technology

Find out how much you can reveal by
stripping. Just take this ad to your computer dealer
for a demonstration of the Cauzin Softstrip
System Reader.

Or for more information and the name of the
dealer nearest you, call Cauzin at 1-800-533-7323.
In Connecticut, call 753-0150.

- 1

i

Soon everyone will be stripping as data strips appear in
popular magazines, computer books and text books.

Cauzin Systems, Inc.
835 South Main St., Waterbury, CT 06706

Apple® and Macintosh® are registered trademarks of Apple Computer Inc., Apple® is a registered trademark of Apple Records, Inc.,
Softstrip® and the Softstrip® System Reader are trademarks of Cauzin Systems, Inc., IBM® is a registered trademark of IBM, Inc.

154 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 58

MHHi

mi

m

I

M^'^ya

la

lb

Here are two programs
you can run by stripping.
Just take this ad to
your dealer for a
demonstration.

1 TURBO PASCAL GRAPHICS DEMO
These strips contain all the source
codef or a TUrbo Pascal ™ program to
demonstrate graphics. To use it on
an IBM PC or compatible, read in
the strips with a Softstrip™ Reader
and then treat just like any other
Source file for llirbo Pascal.
(If you don't have a PC or Turbo
Pascal, you can still read the
source code. The file is standard
ACSCII text.)

2 STRIP DEMO WITH LOTUS
These strips contain a complete
LOTUS™ worksheetfile that demon-
strates and explains the power of
Softstrip™ technology. To view the
demo, just read the strips into an
IBM PC or compatible and retrieve
them from a blank LOTUS work-
sheet (eg. /FR) .

2a

■ i li

'llr'J-;

■t'ti

•;•$;'

: •. ;■■

2b

JMM

=Yv

:p : -

1

Inquiry 58

LOTUS is a registered trademark of Lotus Development Corporation, Turbo Pascal is a registered trademark of Borland International, Inc.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 155

How to get all
the ATs you want.

Pemnai
Computer AT

Persfstuu
Compute

/■■■,■■
- g

4p

A number of products promise
to "make your PC perform like
an AT"

Unfortunately, the resulting
"AT" all too often lacks one or more
important characteristics.

Like compatibility with PC and
AT software. Like IBM serviceability.
Like support for multitasking.

And like the ability to manage
large, AT-size spreadsheets and
databases.

Classic's 286 Speed Pak
performs 33% faster than an AT—
without damage to your PC, with
no BIOS problems, and with no
service problems. It's completely

hardware— and software-
compatible.

And it's the only lx>ard you
can upgrade to let your PC or XT
perform multiple tasks simul-
taneously. For example, you could
compile a new program, ran a
spreadsheet and print a large
document all at once. Just add our
TaskMaster multitasking software
and 2.5Mb memory adapter.

■ DOS 3.0 and 3.1 compatible

■ 100% I/O emulation of the 8088
(no timing problems) ■ 8088 native
mode ■ 512K or 1 Mb memory

■ Can address up to 16 megabytes
of memory on add-in expansion

boards ■ Optional 80287 math
co-processor ■ 16-bit BIOS
■ Full 16-bit data path.

For more information about
the 286 Speed Pak and the name
of your nearest dealer, phone
408/434-9333. Because if you re not
with Classic, you're not where it's
really AT

as CLASSIC

Everything you always
wanted from IBM.

Classic Technology Corporation

2090 Concourse Drive, San Jose,
CA 95131 • 408 434-9333

JHM is a registered trademark of international Rusitii ss Machines Corporation. CLASSIC, 2110 SPKKI) PAK and TaskMaster are trademarks of Classic 'technology Corporation.

156 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986 Inquiry 66 for End-Users. Inquiry 67 for DEALERS ONLY.

PROGRAMMING INSIGHT

BADFILE:

CP/M SYSTEM

PROGRAMMING IN C

by Louis Baker

This utility identifies the names and locations
of files containing bad sectors or tracks

THE PLETHORA OF CP/M utilities
that were designed to help users who
have encountered bad sector prob-
lems, such as Disk Doctor and Find-
bad often fail to supply some useful
information. It's important to know
what file, if any, contains the bad sec-
tor and where it is located. This may
not be of interest to you if you are
using a disk straight out of the box,
but it is valuable information if your
disk contains files you want to salvage.
The utility I will describe, Badfile, gives
you the name and location of the file
if you know the bad track and sector
or its allocation group. (The CP/M util-
ities Disk Doctor and Findbad are two
that will supply this track and sector
information.)

I wrote this routine in Manx Soft-
ware Systems' Aztec C version 1.05,
as an experiment to determine the ad-
vantages and disadvantages of coding
in C versus assembly language for
CP/M. The August 1983 issue of BYTE,
with its C-language theme, inspired
me to become more familiar with C
and writing this utility seemed a fine
way to start.

In addition, the Badfile utility was

just the excuse
to CP/M.

needed to delve in-

Advaimtages and
Disadvantages of C

The major virtues of the C language
are its flexibility and portability. For
example, you have the ability to ad-
dress individual operand bytes
through pointers and unions, to store
important variables in registers, to use
logical shifts, bit-wise operations, and
pre- and post-incrementing and
-decrementing of variables. Yet you do
not sacrifice the ability to specify
loops easily or calculate arithmetic ex-
pressions, including floating-point
operations. The typical constructs of
structured programming, i.e., if. . .
then. . .else, while, for, and switch
statements, are available, as well as
labels and goto statements, when the
occasion demands.

C will not generate code that is as
fast or memory-efficient as assembly
language. This is a potential problem
in writing a BIOS (basic input/output
system) but generally is not a prob-
lem in utilities. The code I discuss
here is I/O (input/output)-bound rather

than compute-bound and requires
negligible time to scan the directory
of a 5!4-inch disk.

While writing this article, I came
across Andy Johnson-Laird's book The
Programmer's CP/M Handbook (Osborne/
McGraw-Hill. 1983). In the first half of
the book he discusses writing custom
BIOS routines in assembly language,
but then he uses C to discuss utilities.
To me this seems a reasonable
approach.

The C language has been criticized
for not being as self-documenting as
Pascal or COBOL. However, it is clear-
ly more readable than machine-lan-
guage code. Loop structures are ob-
vious, especially when you employ
the indented format found in struc-
tured languages in general.

Aztec C

The Aztec C compiler has virtues that
make it the CP/M C compiler of

{continued)
Louis Baker (2904 la Veta Dr. NE. Albu-
querque, NM 87110) has a Ph.D. in
astronomy (rom Columbia University and
works at Mission Research Corporation in
Albuquerque.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 157

BADFILE

Listing I: The Badfile utility reports the location of a bug within a file of a
given track and sector or allocation group. This program is for CP/M systems.

#include "libc.h"

#define ESC 27

#define CR 13

#define LF 10

#define FF 255 /* code returned by find bdos call if no file */

#define DFCB 92 /* 92 = 5CH address of default file control block */

#define DMA 128 /* address of DMA */

struct dph {

char spt[2];/* low order byte first */
char bsh;

int blmexm.dsm.drm.al.cks; /*not used */
char off [2];
} /* disk parameter block structure */ ;

struct fcb{

char drive;

char fname[8];

char type[3];

char fex;

char sys[2];

char free;

char falg[16];

char cr;

char r0,r1,r2;
} /* file control block */;

main (argc.argv) /*
int argc;

identify file corresponding to bad sector 7

register int i;

static int mode I alg,track,sector I secpt l offset I bls I length I j;

static int bad.blksf.driven.bc.de;

int *hl;

struct feb *fcbp,*fcb2;

struct dpb *dpbp;

char name[13],byte;

/* CP/M version number */
be =12; de = /* used */; j = bdos(bcde) ;/* this works */
printf(" CP/M version number °/ox\n",j);

/* desired drive? */
printf("enter drive (default = 0, A = 1,B = 2,etc) ");
scanf(" °/od",&driven) /* scanf need pointers */;

/'input desired mode of search */
printffenter is track/sector given, 1 if group");
scanf(" °/od",&mode);
/* BIOS call to select disk if not default */
be = driven -1;/* be registers for disk selection */
/'SELDSK 9th bios entry hi points to disk parameter

header */
if(bc!= -1) hi = bioshl(9,bc,de);
printff' alloc, group of disk parameter header °/ox\ n",hl);
if(mode= = 1) { /* read in allocation group */
printf(" enter hex alloc, gp.");
scanf("°/ox",&alg);
/* use hl= adr of disk parameter header to get dp block */

hi - hi +5; /* 5 words = 10 bytes */
/* hi now points to dpb address */
printf(" address containing dpb address °/ox/ n",hl);
dpbp= *hl; /* dpbp= contents of what hi points to */

{continued)

choice. As discussed by Christopher
O. Kern in "Five C Compilers for
CP/M-80" (August 1983 BYTE, page
110), it was the only compiler re-
viewed that fully implemented the
Kernighan and Ritchie standard C
language and possessed their stan-
dard library. Full source code (C or
assembly language) is provided. The
code is compatible with the Microsoft
M80 assembler, making it possible to
use the Microsoft FORTRAN libraries
from C or write C routines callable
from FORTRAN or compiled BASIC.
Only the linkage conventions and
floating-point formats differ.

However, Aztec C is not a perfect
compiler. Page VI. 2 2 of the Aztec C
manual states that the function bdos
returns the contents of the HL reg-
ister. In fact, it returns the contents of
the A register. You have to call the un-
documented function bdoshl to
achieve the stated effect. Fortunate-
ly, the source code that is provided
with the compiler lets the program-
mer discover this function (with a bit
of digging). The BIOS calls bios and
bioshl have a parallel structure to the
BDOS (basic disk operating system)
calls that lead one to suspect such a
function might exist.

I noted a circumlocution in the
manual's description of the function
pfilen, which is necessary to get
around a compiler bug. If you attempt
to use only one structure pointer,
f cb2. which is passed as an argument
and used in operations within the
pfilen function, the result is a compiler
error code 88— "not a structure. " The
manual's syntax is identical to that of
an example on pages 148-149 of lack
Purdum's C Programming Guide (Que
Corporation, 1983). The compiler ac-
cepted fcb2 as pointing to a "local"
structure within the function, with the
pointer passed to the function being
used in an assignment statement.

Badfile

I have tried to make the source code
for Badfile (shown in listing I) fairly
self-documenting through the use of
indentation and comments. | Editor's
note: This source code for Badfile is also avail-

{continued)

158 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

PERSONAL

COMPUTER

PHOTOCOPIER

Have you ever wished that there was a machine
for your PC that could scan your photographs,
artwork or documents just like a photocopier? And
was as easy to use and understand? As well as copy
and store in color or black-and-white onto your hard
drive for editing?

Well there is such a machine now. It's called the
SpectraFAX digital photocopier. We got tired
of trying to use digitizing tablets, cameras, mice and
everything else that has been invented. The
SpectraFAX machines will scan any and all of your
art, photos, forms or text for storage in your PC.
Images that you can cut-and-paste into your word
processing or database programs. Our SpectraFAX
200 will scan and store your color or black-and-white
images for editing and printing at resolutions up to
200 dots per inch. Then the SpectraFAX Graphics
Editor software that we bundle with the scanner will
allow you to cut-and-paste your images, rotate them,
enlarge and reduce whatever pictures you choose.

That's not all. Our digital photocopiers are based
on open-architecture design, which means that

as new uses for this technology develop, add-on
cards can enhance our SpectraFAX digital photo-
copier. But we didn't want to wait for third-party
vendors, so we invented two optional boards of our
own: the SpectraFAXimile™ Card and the
SpectraFAX TEXreader™.

The SpectraFAXimile card takes advantage of the
200 dots per inch resolution of the scanning
device to turn it into a facsimile machine, compatible
with all Group H and Group III facsimile machines
worldwide.

The TEXreader board is a revolution in itself — full-
scale OCR (optical character recognition) to read
typewritten pages with the SpectraFAX machine
into your word processor without having to re-type
what somebody else has already typed.

What's most amazing about the SpectraFAX
product line, though, sre the prices. Our
digital photocopiers cost about the same ss a regular
office copier Because we know high tech has to be
affordable.

Spectra *cor P

2000 Palm Streets. • Naples, Florida 33962 • (813) 775-2737

a x

£ <

Cl ll

no <X>

x

s

-i

ip

Pi

n

Inquiry 309

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 159

Inquiry 125 for End-Users.
Inquiry 126 for DEALERS ONLY.

LOOKING FOR AT
PERFORMANCE
FROM YOUR

JEARTH HAS IT FOR
LESS THAN $1 ,000!

YOUR SEARCH IS OVER!! EARTH
OMPUTERS' exciting new high-
speed, 80286 accelerator card,
Turbo ACCEL-286™ , isjustwhatyou've
been looking for. The TurboACCEL-
286 will boost your PC performance up
to Five times... its completely software
transparent.. .and its only $995!
TurboACCEL-286 will function with
most operating systems and application
programs (unlike other so-called
[accelerator boards).

The TurboACCEL-286 features a
high-speed, 8MHz, 80286 processor,
512Kbytes of RAM (expandable to
1 Mbytes), a switchfor8088 operation,
and facilities for an 80287 math co-
processor. It occupies one expansion
slot, is completely compatible with
most PCs and is software transparent.
End your search for AT performance.
Order the TurboACCEL-286 today!
Call or write:

EARTH COMPUTERS

P.O. Box 8067, Fountain Valley, CA 92728
TELEX: 910997 6120 EARTH FV

(714)964-5784

Ask about EARTH COMPUTERS' other
fine PC and S-1 00 compatible products.

BADFILE

printff loc of dpb °/ox \ n",dpbp);

/*dpbp points to address in dpb field of dpb */

}
else {

printff enter track(decimal)");

scanff /od",&track);

printff enter sector (decimal)");

scanff °/od",&sector);

/* determine allocation group */

/* another way to locate dp block-BDOS CALL */

be = 31;

dpbp = bdoshl(bc.de) ;/* get dpb address,
de unused */

/* now find allocation group */

secpt = (dpbp- >spt[D]) +256 * (dpbp- >spt[1]) ;

printff sectors per track °/od\ n", secpt);

offset = (dpbp- >off[0]) + 256* (dpbp- >off[1]);

printff offset °/od\ n", offset);

blksf = dpbp- >bsh;

/* printff loc offset %x\ n",&(dpbp- > off)); */

printff block shift factor °/od\ n", blksf);

alg =
( (track -offset)* secpt + sector -1 ) >> (blksf);

} /* END of else clause */
/* echo check */
printff alloc.gp. = °/ox\n", alg); /* code working up to here */

/* now search for that alloc, gp. */;
febp = DFCB /* specify file control block */
febp- >drive= driven /* drive name */;

/* set file name,type,extent to wild card= ? */
for (i = 0;i<8;i+ +)

febp- >fname[i]= '?';
febp- >type[0]= 7';fcbp- >type[1] = '?';fcbp- >type[2]= '?';
febp- >fex= '?' /* we don't use strings, which require /0

term. */ ;
/* loop over files max 64 directory entries in CP/M*/
length = dpbp- >drm;
printf directory length °/od entries \ n",length);
for (bc = 17J = 0; j<length;j+ +,bc = 18) {

mode = bdos(bc.fcbp);
/* DE = fcbp points to fcb. A = directory code
in variable mode = FF if done else to 3 */

if (mode = = FF)
goto fini;

fcb2 = mode*32 + MDA ;/* point to found fcb */

/* loop over groups in this extent */

for(i = 0;i<16;i+ +){

if(fcb2->falg[i]==alg)

goto found;
/* could put here goto next file if f alg = */

if (fcb2 - >falg[i] = = ' \ 0') break;

} /* end of the for loop over extent*/
} /* end of for loop over directory entries */
fini: printff no user file at that group \ n");

goto term;
found:/*' print file name, get size and approx. position */
j = fcb2 - >f ex;
printff bad record °/od of extent °/od \ n",i + 1 J);

/* BDOS call for record count */
be = 35;

fcb2- > drive = febp- > drive:/* move drive i.d. to
make fcb out of file information in DMA area */
hi = bdoshl(bc,fcb2); /* CP/M to get record count*/

{continued)

160 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 207 for End-Users. Inquiry 208 for DEALERS ONLY. — *

Rom the minds of MASTERYOICE.
Introducing Butler- In- A- Box. The
worlds first environmental control sys-
tem that responds to voice commands.
The first with AIR. (Artificial Intelli-
gent Recognizer); a futuristic software
program which makes it a reality.

Replace pushbutton control
with voice activated magic!

Butler-In-A-Box replaces old-fashioned
pushbutton control systems making
them obsolete. At the sound of your
voice, he carries out your tasks. All you
have to do is ASK! FYbm the comfort of
your favorite easy chair, up to twenty
feet away.

Control all of your electronic
devices at the sound of
your voice.

Butler-In-A-Box puts all of your elec-
tronic devices, high tech or not, under
your voice control. He will dial your
phone and answer incoming calls with-
out ever touching him. He turns your TV,
stereo, heating systems and other elec-
tronic devices on and off, even dims
lights. All of this instantly or at the pre-
determined times you desire.

Computerized protection
against intruders.

Butler-In-A-Box has a unique, built-in
infrared sensor and intrusion detection
system that guards your home and alerts
you to uninvited guests. When he de-
tects intruders, he will speak and ask
them to identify themselves. Only you
can verbally command him to turn off
his intrusion detection system, because
he is trained to recognize only your
voice. He is also capable of interfacing
with your existing home security sys-
tem, so it canbe activatedby your voice.

Speaks and understands any
language.

Your Butler-In-A-Box is smart enough to
call you by name and answer "intelli-
gently" with a variety of random re-
sponses — in any language you wish!
Even with an accent

Easy to install and use.

Your Butler has been designed with you
in mind. He's so simple to install and use
you won't believe it. Complete with in-
structional audio cassette and easy to
follow written instructions. And, no
special wiring of your home is required .

Experience the technology of tomor-
row today! Put Butler-In-A-Box to work
for vou.

Order direct or send for our free bro-
chure by just lifting a finger, (possibly
for the last time), and dialing our toll-
fee hot-line: 1-800-O-BUTLER. (In
California) 1-(714) 952-7056. Or write:

Riture Systems Marketing
5067 Cumberland Drive
Cypress, CA 90630

^|^[^M4STERlOICE

T/WW BUTLER IN A BOX

Future Systems Marketing -Tomorrows dreams, today's reality.

■£ 1985 Mastervoice. Ltd.

Inquiry 266

WALTZ
LISP

The universal, superefficient
LISP for MS-DOS and CP/M.

Waltz Lisp is a very powerful and complete
implementation of Lisp. It is substantially
compatible with established mainframe Lisps
such as Franz (the Lisp running under Unix),
Common Lisp, and Maclisp.

In independent tests, Waltz Lisp
was up to twenty(!) times faster
than competing microcomputer Lisps.

Easy to use.

Built-in WS-compatible full-
screen file editor. Full debug-
ging and error handling facilities are available at all
times. No debuggers to link or load.

Random file access, binary file
support, and extensive string
operations make Waltz Lisp suitable for general
programming. Several utilities are included in the
package.

Functions of type lambda (expr),
nlambda (fexpr), lexpr, macro.
Splicing and non-splicing character macros. Full
suite of mappers, iterators, etc. Long integers (up
to 611 digits). Fast list sorting using user defined
comparison predicates. Built-in prettyprinting and
formatting facilities. Nearly 300 functions in all.

Transparent (yet programmable)
handling of undefined function
references allows large programs to reside partially
on disk at run time. Automatic loading of initializa-
tion file. Assembly language interface.

Each aspect of
the interpreter is
described in detail. The 300+ page manual
includes an exhaustive index. Hundreds of illustra-
tive examples.

Superbly documented.

Order Waltz Lisp now and receive free our

PROLOG Interpreter

Clog PROLOG is a tiny (but very complete)
PROLOG implementation written entirely in
Waltz Lisp. In addition to the full source code,
the package includes a 50 page Clog manual.

16-bit versions require DOS 2.x or CP/M-86 and 128K
RAM (more recommended).
Z-80 version requires CP/M
2.x or 3.x and 48K RAM
minimum. Waltz Lisp runs
on hundreds of different
computer models and is
available in all disk formats.

$169

'Manual only: $30 (refund-
able with order). Foreign
orders: add $5 for surface
mail, $20 for airmail. COD add $3. Apple CP/M. hard
sector; and 3" formats add $15. MC/Visa accepted.

For further information or to order call
HI 1-800-LIP-4000 Dept. 31 E3

In Oregon and outside USA call 1-503-684-3000.

ODE

15930 SW Colony PI.
Portland, OR 97224

INTERNATIONAL*

BADFILE

/* call to bdos or CP/M equivalent, as answer in fcb 7

if ( (fcb-2- >r2) = = 1 ) length = 65536;
else length = ((int)(fcb2 - > rO)) + 256*((int)(fcb2- <r1));

printf(" bad file: °/od records \ n", length);
/* position of bad sector NB- 1 record can be >1 sector in file */

length = (1 00*(1 6* j + 1 ))/length;

printf(" bad record approx °/od percent into file: \ n",length);

pfilen(fcb2);
term: exit(O);/* return to system, job done */

}
pfilen(fcb){

struct fcb *fcb2,*fcb;

static char pname[9],ptype[4];

register int i;

fcb-2 = fcb;

pname[8] = ' \ 0';ptype[3] = ' \ O';

/* move i no longer needed for position of bad gp. */

for (i = 0;i<8;i+ +) pname[i]= fcb2- >fname[i];

for (i = 0;i<3;i+ +) ptype[i]= fcb2- >type[i];

/* terminate string name— eliminate trailing blanks in name */

for(i = 7;1>-1;i--){

if(pname[i] = = ' ')pname[i] = ' \ O';

else break; /* do NOT eliminate embedded blanks */

}
/* output file ID */

printf ("°/os.°/os\ n",pname,ptype);

able for downloading via BYTEnet Listings
at (617) 861-9764 and can be obtained on
disk (see page 350 for details).] The file-
control block and disk-parameter
block are declared as structures. You
might be able to gain some speed by
mapping byte and integer arrays onto
these structures with a union declara-
tion; however to attain this speed
gain, you might have to sacrifice clari-
ty and portability of the program.

In the listing, I describe two routes
to the disk-parameter block. The first,
used when the allocation group is
specified, uses BIOS calls to find the
disk-parameter header, which con-
tains the address of the disk-param-
eter block. The second route, used
when the track and sector are
specified, uses BDOS calls. The size
of the file is found with a BDOS call,
while the drive is selected with a BIOS
call.

The Badfile program does not make
any attempt to determine if the bad

sector is in an erased file. If the file
has been erased, chances are you
probably don't care if it is subse-
quently "lost" through a bad sector.
The directory is searched until BDOS
call 1 7 or 1 8 returns a hexadecimal FF
in the HL register. If the offending
allocation group is not part of a file,
it is reported. Otherwise, BDOS call 3 5
is used to find the size of the file, and
the approximate position of the bad
group in the file is reported along with
the filename.

Conclusion

I have described a program that will
help you locate bad files. It will give
you the name and location, if you
know the bad track or sector. It is writ-
ten in C, which has some drawbacks,
but I believe its use, as explained in
this article, illustrates the potential of
C for writing utilities. Overall, I think
that Badfile can be of use to many
CP/M users. ■

162 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

"NOW IN OUR 8TH Y€AR"

PC HMD DISK

TH€ UJORLD OF PC UPGRflD€S

FAEE

5 Mega Bytes Of
software tuith the
purchase of any P.C.
hard disk

PC HARD DISK

is*

10 Mbyte
IS10 $495

PC HARD DISK

20 Mbyte
IS20 $545

30 Mbyte
IS30 $895

TfiNDV 1 000
MULTI-FUNC BOARD

TMF-1

$255

CASH RSSIST

SPEEDS

DISK
ACCESS

$49.95

DIRECT RSSIST

SIMPLIFIES

DOS

OPERATIONS

$49. 95

COMMAND ASSIST

DOS

MANUAL

ON

DISK

$49."

INTERNAL
TAP€ BACKUP

10 Mbyte
MT10 $385

AT HARD DISK

"W

20 Mbyte
AT20 $545

PORTABLE
TAPE BACKUP

10 Mbyte
MT10P $525

AT HARD DISK

33 Mbyte
AT33 $750

INTERNAL
TAPE BACKUP

60 Mbyte
MT60 $895

AT HARD DISK

DESKTOP
TAPE BACKUP

V*

70 Mbyte
AT70 CALL

MT10E $575
MT60E $995

■"""■a™™—

PC/AT HARD DISK

120 Mbyte
ATI 20 $4,995

)rd€r un6 800-228-0891
305-677-833'

■m

VISA* MasterCard)

FJll Micro Desi g n InternQtional Inc.

| Hilllllil^'' 6566 University Boulevard. Winter Park, Florida 32792 (305) 677-8333 Tei€X 332559 MDII Oftl UD

1 V6RR WRRRRNTY, 30 DRV MON6V BRCK GURRRNTK ON RLL OUR PRODUCTS

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 163

YOU CAMT GET
A GOOD FEEL
FOR A
SOFTWARE
PACKAGE

FROM All AD.

If you're searching
through the acjs In this
magazine for the
"right" software pack-
age, good luck.

Let's say you're looking for a
data base manager. You read a
dozen ads. Each one offers its
list of features. Each one talks
about the ideal combination of
power and ease of use. And
each one promises to "solve
your problems", "answer your
needs", or both.

Don't Believe Anybody

We could make the same claims
for DATAEA5E. Even before
Release 2.5, tens of thousands
of users made DATAEA5E the
corporate data base standard.
We could tell you that they
found DATAEA5E to be an invalu-
able productivity tool because of
its fully relational capabilities, full
screen editor and unique combi-
nation of menus and com-
mands. But don't believe us.

More than 100 reviewers from
major publications agree with
our productivity claims. Data
Decisions called DATAEA5E "per-
haps the most effective blend of
ease-of-use and performance
available for PC users to date."
But don't believe the reviewers.

Application developers, MI5/DP/
IC managers, and all kinds of
other users from Fortune 1000
companies throughout the
country have reached strikingly
similar conclusions. A user at
General Instruments reports
that "those same factors that

make DATAEA5E preferable for
non-programmers — ease of
use and speed of development

— make it the program of
choice for many technical types,
too." But don't even believe
other users.

Mobody knows what you Know.

Even if all these people are
absolutely rightabout
DATAEA5E, does that mean it's
the right product for you?

The best way to know if
DATAEA5E fits your needs is to
get your hands on our free sam-
ple diskette. Fifteen minutes
with the sample will give you a
feel for our best DATAEA5E yet

— Release 2.5. It has features
that appeal to all users; from
developers to data entry people:
A complete procedural lan-
guage; quick reports at the
press of a button; a direct inter-
face to Lotus 1-2-3; the ability to
move rapidly from file to file on a
common piece of data; and
built-in scientific, mathematical,
financial, date, time, and string
functions.

Productivity takes more
than a good product.

It takes a good company, too.
Buying a software package is
the beginning of a relationship.
Technical support, product
upgrades, special corporate and
dealer programs and informa-
tional seminars should all be
part of this relationship. If the
only thing you get is a product,
forget about productivity. At
5oftware 5olutions, you find
more than a product. You find
software solutions.

Find out for yourself.

The advances in DATAEA5E's
Release 2.5, and the support
behind it, offer you practical
advantages that leave all the
other data base managers far,
far behind — including R:Base
5000® and dBase III®. But
don't believe us. Call or write for
information and your free sam-
ple diskette today.

Software Solutions, Inc.

CALL OR WRITE FOR YOUR FREE
SAMPLE DISKETTE.

5end information and a free DATAEA5E
sample diskette for my PC (check one):

I I IBM CD WANG \Z\ DEC \Z\ Tl

Include materials relating to:

I I Corporate Client | | Retailer

I I MI5/DP/IC Professional D VAD

EH Other

(lame:
Title: _

Phone:

Company: .
Street:

City:.

State:

.Zip:.

BYT 2/86

Mail to:

Software Solutions, Inc.,

12 Cambridge Drive,

Trumbull CT 0661 1 Telex: 703972

Don't like samples? Then just call us. We'd
be happy to talk about your information
management needs and adv/ise you.

800-243-5123

Scandinavia

West Soft A/5. Alesund, Morway, (47) 71-41141

©1985 5oftware Solutions, inc.

Trademarks are of their respective companies.

5wit?erland, France United Kingdom West Germany, Austria

5oftsource, 5&A 1222 Vesenaz, Switzerland; 022-3518-55 5apphlre Systems, Essex; 1-554-0582 M&T Software Verlag, Munich; 089-46 15-0

Inquiry 302

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 165

EWE

Text
Processing

Computer Science Considerations

conducted by G. Michael Vose

and Gregg Williams 169

Processing Strings in SNOBOL4

by ]ames F. Gimpel 175

Interpretation of Natural Language

by \oxdan Pollack and David L. Waltz .... 189

Typesetting Problem Scripts

by Pierre A. MacKay 201

Poetry Processing

by Michael Newman 221

The Literary Detective

by ]im Tankard 231

Keyboard Efficiency

by Donald W. Olson

and Laurie E. }asinski 241

"PROCESSING TEXT" PERHAPS better summarizes the contents of this theme,
since all of the articles discuss the manipulation, analysis, and organization
of text. And, be forewarned, the interests of our authors extend well beyond
mere word processing.

When Donald Knuth first got involved with text formatting eight years ago,
he could not have predicted that the problem would consume so much of
his time. His interview with G. Michael Vose and Gregg Williams reveals his
excitement.

Like Knuth, Pierre MacKay also has devoted his time to the area of com-
puter typesetting. His article explores scripts that provide a challenging series
of problems in text formatting.

Jim l&nkard offers a delightful series of programs that determine with some
precision the authorship of text by examining text structure and word use.
In particular, he applies the programs to the historic Federalist papers, to deter-
mine the relative contributions of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.

For those interested in immediate rewards, lames Gimpel explores
SNOBOL4, whose pattern-matching facility makes it a particularly rich language
for analyzing strings. His examples bring out the richness and flexibility of
a language that is highly useful for a variety of text-processing tasks.

For the more immediate future, Michael Newman, an enterprising poet,
discusses the enlightened possibilities for poetry processing; Paul Holzer, a
programmer working with Michael, presents an interesting algorithm for
syllabification, a necessary step in comparing prose to meter.

In the challenging realm of artificial intelligence, Jordan Pollack and David
Waltz offer a model for a psychologically realistic natural-language processor
that takes syntax, semantics, and contextual knowledge into consideration.'
The article and the code they provide reveal many of the problems of and
potentialities for natural-language interpretation.

Finally, Donald Olson and Laurie Jasinski test the conventional assertion that
the Dvorak layout vastly lessens finger travel compared to the standard
QWERTY layout. Without doubt, Dvorak typists will continue to extol their
method, but the article should at least dispel some common claims.

The primary use for most microcomputers is, and undoubtedly will remain,
the processing of text; as the articles in this section well illustrate, however,
there is much more to text processing than word processing. So it should be.

—]on R. Edwards, Technical Editor

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 167

Get started in AI
with Gold Hill.

You know artificial intelligence is the
wave of the future. Programs based
on the ideas of artificial intelligence
are being written today in Common
Lisp- the new Lisp standard
developed by researchers from
universities and corporations
such as Carnegie Mellon, DEC,
MIT, Stanford, Symbolics
and TI. Lisp allows the devel-
opment of programs that are
intelligent, flexible, and even
human-like. The problem has
been that hardware needed to
run Lisp is expensive.

No longer. Golden Common
Lisp (GC Lisp) makes it possible
for you to learn and use Lisp on
your personal computer. When you
use GC Lisp in combination with the
AI examples provided, you will be
able to develop such exciting appli-
cations as expert systems, natural
language systems, and intelligent
interfaces to complex software.
The possibilities are endless. With
GC Lisp you can tackle problems
that you could not solve before
with ordinary number crunching
programs. You will be able to write
powerful programs that can accom-
modate casual computer users who
want intelligible answers quickly.

Easy to Learn

GC Lisp makes it easy for you to learn
the technology of AI at your own
pace. Each package includes the San
Marco Lisp Explorer— an interactive
software tutorial developed by
Patrick H. Winston and his associ-
ciates. This 800-frame instructional

is* ,

i

Golden Common Lisp is the best selling
AI language.

system guides you through the
steps of Lisp programming and
makes the full range of Lisp's
power accessible to both novice
and experienced programmers.
The second edition of the classic
Lisp textbook by Winston and
Horn is also included.

More Power

GC Lisp comes complete with the
intelligent GMACS editor (based
on EMACS) , full on-line documen-
tation of all GC Lisp and GMACS
functions, the Common Dsp Refer-
ence Manualby Steele, and a com-
prehensive user manual. In short,
Golden Common Lisp comes with
everything you need to program in
Lisp. GC Lisp is the most powerful

Lisp available today on PCs; some of
its advanced features include lexical
and dynamic scoping, defstructs,
closures, stream I/O, and multiple-
value returning functions.

The Complete Solution

In addition to GC Lisp, Gold Hill
offers an entire line of development
and delivery tools designed to
increase your organization's pro-
ductivity in artificial intelligence.
These include the GC Lisp
Compiler, PC-to-Symbolics™
network, HALO" Graphics, and
training and consulting services.
Gold Hill is also proud to intro-
duce GC Lisp LM (Large Memory)
-the first PC-DOS language to take
advantage of the 15 -megabyte
memory capacity of the latest gen-
eration of PCs (such as the IBM PC
AT) . For multiple-user sites, Gold
Hill offers a Corporate License
Package which features quantity
discounts and service and support.

Order Today

For order information on Gold Hill
products please call today.

1-800-242-LISP

In Massachusetts call collect
(617) 492-2071

GC Lisp requires an IBM PC, PC XT, PC
AT, or IBM-compatible with a minimum
512K and PC-DOS 2.0.

Gold Hill Computers

Setting the AI Standard for

Personal Computers.

G O L D

H I L L CO M P U

163 Harvard Street, Cambridge, MassachusettsD2139

T e r s

Golden Common Lisp and GC Lisp arc trademarks of Gold Hill Computers. The San Marco Lisp Explorer is a trademark of San Marco Associates.

L/SPis copyrighted by Addison- Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. The Common DSP Reference Manual is copyrighted by Digital Equipment

Corporation. IBM PC, PC XT, PC AT, and PC-DOS are trademarks of International Business Machines.

Halo Graphics is a trademark of Media Cybernetics. Symbolics is a trademark of Symbolics, Inc.

168 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 146

TEXT PROCESSING

COMPUTER

SCIENCE

CONSIDERATIONS

CONDUCTED BY G. MICHAEL VOSE AND GREGG WILLIAMS

Donald Knuth speaks on his involvement
with digital typography

Text processing as a computer science prob-
lem has consumed a major portion of the time
and energy of Stanford professor Donald
Knuth over the past eight years. Knuth
authored and placed into the public domain
a highly regarded typography system that he
calls T^X {pronounced "tech"), along with
a font creation language called METAFONT.
\n conjunction with the completion of T^X,
Knuth and Addison-Wesley are publishing a
five-volume work entitled Computers and
T/pesetting. Volume I is The Tr^Xbook,
volume 2 is the source code for T^X, volume
3 is The METAFONT Book, volume 4 is
the METAFONT source code, and volume 5
is Computer Modern Typefaces.

To discover what so intrigued Knuth about
this subject. BYTE senior editors Gregg
Williams and Mike Vose conducted the follow-
ing interview with Professor Knuth at
Addison-VJesley's offices in Reading, Massa-
chusetts, on November II, 1985.

BYTE: Dr. Knuth. how did you become in-
volved with digital typography and the public-
domain system known as Tj:X?
Knuth: I got interested because I had
written books and seen galley proofs,
and suddenly computers were getting
into the field of typesetting and the

m In li fe F
mlxkm iA A

mxikxiA A

Donald Knuth

quality was going down.

Then I was working on a committee
at Stanford planning an exam, and we
got a hold of some drafts of Patrick
Winston's book on artificial intelli-
gence. We were looking at it to see if
we should put it on the reading list for

a comprehensive exam. It had just
been brought in from Los Angeles
where it had been done on a digital
phototypesetter. This was the first
time that I had ever seen digital type
at high resolution. We had a cheap
digital machine at Stanford that we
thought of as a new toy. But never
would I have associated it with print-
ing a book that I'd be proud to own.
Then I saw this type, and it looked
as good as any I had ever seen done
with metal. I knew that it was done
just with zeroes and ones. I knew that
it was bits. I could never, in my mind,
ever, conceive of doing anything with
lenses or with lead, metallurgy, and
things like that. But zeroes and ones
was different. I felt that I understood
zeroes and ones as well as anybody!
All it involved was getting the right
zeroes and ones in place and I would
have a machine that would do the
books and solve all the quality prob-
lems. And, also, I could do it once and
for all. I still had a few more volumes
to write \of his seminal work. The Art of
Computer Programming, a seven-volume
series of which three volumes are finished] and

{continued)

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 169

KNUTH INTERVIEW

\ was excited that I
started out trying to
apply computer science to
typography and wound
up applying typography
to computer science: in
fact right in the center
of computer science!

by the time I was ready with volume
7, the technology would change an-
other three times and the quality
would go down each time. So if 1
could only figure out a way to
generate the right zeroes and ones,
then I could have that in a computer
program that I know how to write, and
everything would be solved.

So within a week of seeing this ex-
ample from Winston's book, I told my
wife 1 had to start changing my pres-
ent plans to work on typography. I
was going to spend one year doing
all this typography, and I was going
to write a system that would be useful
to do my books. At the end of the
year 1 would go back to write those
books the way I had been doing.

BYTE: And what year was this?
Knuth: That was 1977, 78. If I had
estimated that it would take eight
years, of course, I never would have
started. I certainly didn't have any idea
that this would be as difficult a prob-
lem as it turned out to be. It looked
pretty easy to me at first.

BYTE: So you embarked on this project most-
ly out of necessity— you needed a superior sys-
tem for producing your books. Then, once you
got into it. what captivated you about typog-
raphy as a computer science problem that's
held onto you for eight years?
Knuth: I found that it was very rich.
I found that there were a lot of things

below the surface that were really in-
teresting from both the theoretical
and the practical points of view. For
example, I needed to develop a lot of
mathematics for rounding curves so
that they looked right as raster
images. At first, I didn't think that was
going to be very hard. I didn't realize
the importance of symmetry, how
hard it is to make a left parenthesis
look like a mirror image of a right
parenthesis if you don't put the line
exactly the same. If you have some-
thing that wants to be 2ft pixels wide
and you put it down in one place it
becomes 3 and in another place it
becomes 2. All of the obvious ap-
proaches to visualization failed. I kept
going on it because 1 felt that I was
in the right place at the right time and
was destined to do the job.

I knew that these were problems
that took a pretty good mathemati-
cian to solve, and there weren't any
other good mathematicians looking at
it. So 1 felt that it was my duty, and
it was also interesting. And partly
because I felt that here I was with 40
years of training pertinent to this in-
teresting and important problem.
New things kept turning up because
it was a case where the territory
hadn't been gone over by mathemati-
cians before, so there were good
mathematical problems lying there
just for the asking.

And there was another reason why
I spent so much time on T^X. Tony
Hoare came up with an idea. He said,
"Don, we need examples of large
computer programs for people to
look at." and he said, "How about
publishing your programs for T^X."
That was mind-boggling. I thought.
"I'm a professor of computer science
and I hacked together this program in
a big hurry trying to finish it in a year
and now I'm supposed to publish it!
Ouch— I have a reputation as a com-
puter scientist. Nobody ever shows
what you really do in computer pro-
grams, so this is out of the question.
We tell students what they are sup-
posed to do, but do we really have
time to dot the i's and cross the t's
when it comes down to it?" On the
other hand, it seemed to me that this

was kind of a ridiculous situation, for
a professor of computer science to be
ashamed of a program he had writ-
ten. Could I really do something that
would make a large program under-
standable? Could I write a program
that was useful, accommodating the
compromises of the real world, and
still have something that I could say
that I was proud of?

Then it occurred to me, I had one
thing going for me that would make
it easier: I had a typographic system,
so I could use typography to help the
documentation of my programs. So
then 1 realized that there were lots of
other ideas floating around that peo-
ple had used that could all be brought
together with typography in making
a way of documenting programs so
that a large program could be well
understood.

This led to what is now called the
WEB system, a new way to write pro-
grams. | Editor's note: Knuth defines WEB
as follows: "WEB is itself chiefly a combina-
tion of two other languages: (I) a document
formatting language and (2) a programming
language. My prototype WEB system uses
T[rX as the document formatting language
and Pascal as the programming language, but
the same principles would apply equally well
if other languages were substituted'.' Quoted
from "Literate Programming" by Donald E.
Knuth. The Computer Journal, vol. 27.
no. 2. 1984.|

BYTE: So WEB as a programming paradigm
grew out of a fusion of typography and struc-
tured programming?

Knuth: It turned out that I got so ex-
cited about WEB that I wanted to go
back and rewrite every program I had
written since the 1950s. I felt that at
last it was real programming. Of
course, I'm too much of a fan of this
|WEB| to be considered unbiased. 1
love the fact that once I got to be
writing programs in this way it was a
turn-on just because I felt that the pro-
gram was being exposed the way a
program should be, and I am an ex-
positor at heart.

I was excited that I started out try-
ing to apply computer science to
typography and wound up applying

(continued)

170 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

m

*?

It's not just that
COMPAQf §6 Computers are getting
\ -^rave reviews. . .

.

It's why

.

■'S/\,

a~S

m
I

s

r y

/

Since we introduced the COMPAQ DESKPRO
286* and COMPAQ PORTABLE 286*, the
accolades haven't stopped:

InfoWorld: "(COMPAQ DESKPRO 286 is] a superb
performer. It races through its tasks with efficient
competence and heartwarming speed. Most IBM PC
programs worked much faster than on the PC or XT.
Wordstar's speed is a joy. Lotus' 1-2-3 zips along. . .
this machine will outperform the AT."

PC Week: "... the machines IBM should have
built." ". ..significant user advantages over IBM's
machine. . . a standard dual-mode monitor, reliable
tape backup, . . . better construction than IBM's, an
impressively fast drive and other little extras— at a
price below similarly configured IBM's."

Popular Computing: ". ..genuine enhancements,
suchas higher CPU speed, greater RAM capacity,
portability, . . .greater hard-disk capacity, and an
optional tape backup unit."

Why are the COMPAQ* 286 computers getting
such rave reviews? They simply work better.

For a free, b^^bhure or the location of your nearest Authorized
COMPAQ Computer Dealer, call toll-free 1-800-231-0900 and ask
for Operator 13.
©19 85 COMPAQ Computer Corporation. All rights reserved.

--rrx '• • • • >*;»;•; V. V. V. V •

ruibl?286 Has Power

*r f i r rid

■" ;..'- , :

It simply works better.

y " -ill

comma

Inquiry 281

Instant-C:

The Fastest
Interpreter for C

Runs your programs 50

to 500 times faster than

any other C language

interpreter.

4 ny C interpreter can save you compile
/Vand link time when developing your
programs. But only Instant-C saves
your time by running your program at
compiled-code speed.

Fastest Development. A program
that runs in one second when compiled
with an optimizing compiler runs in
two or three seconds with Instant-C.
Other interpreters will run the same
program in two minutes. Or even ten
minutes. Don't trade slow compiling
and linking for slow testing and debug-
ging. Only Instant-C mil let you edit,
test, and debug at the fastest possible
speeds.

Fastest Testing. Instant-C immedi-
ately executes any C expression, state-
ment, or function call, and display the
results. Learn C, or test your programs
faster than ever before.

Fastest Debugging. Instant-C gives
you the best source-level debugger for
C Single-step by source statement, or
set any number of conditional break-
points throughout your program. Errors
always show the source statements
involved. Once you find the problem,
test the correction in seconds.

Fastest Programming. Instant-C
can directly generate executable files,
supports full K & R standard C, comes
with complete library source, and works
under PC-DOS, MS-DOS, or CP/M-86.
Instant-C gives you working, well-
tested programs faster than any other
programming tool. Satisfaction guar-
anteed, or your money back in first
31 days. Instant-C is S495.

Rational

Systems, Inc.

P.O. Box 480

Natick, MA 01760

(617) 653-6194

KNUTH INTERVIEW

'People just love to
see something new that
they can control and
make words come out
in a different way!

typography to computer science: in
fact right in the center of computer
science.

BYTE: Right now one of the hottest topics
in computers is desktop publishing, and there
is a plethora of new programs out that do what
T E X does, only not as well. Are programs
like T^X going to fundamentally alter the
way people work with words?
Knuth: I think it will affect a lot of peo-
ple. I'll just tell you what I know about
this. Whenever something becomes a
lot easier when a person has the
power to do something he couldn't do
before, this affects his life. When
something becomes 10 times cheaper
than it was before, all of a sudden it
becomes an option for somebody
that they never would have thought
of. In my case, when type became
zeroes and ones instead of metal, it
became an option to me.

I would say that about 60 percent
of our students get infected with the
idea that they can do beautiful type-
setting. Therefore, they are writing
better term papers. They are thinking
more about the problem of commu-
nication, and. since they are in con-
trol of it and don't have to explain a
notation to some intermediary, then
they are coming up with better nota-
tions. They will now consider a part
of their own job description to be
communicating in type, which they
never would have thought if they had
only a typewriter. My own experience
is mainly with computer science
students, but other parts of the com-
munity are affected, too. You find a lot
of chemists and a lot of physicists, and
musicians to a great extent.

Even when we had only low-quality,

low-resolution printers, the precursors
to Tj:X excited people. Stanford,
Carnegie-Mellon, MIT, and USC were
given four obsolete XGP printers,
which Xerox decided not to market,
about 1972, '73. These printers had
a resolution of 200 dots to the inch,
but that resolution was actually 240
dpi in the middle of the page and 1 50
at the edges of the page. (Words
looked different on different parts of
the page because the machine was in-
tended to scan in at the same distor-
tion and scan out. It was not intended
to be a computer generating the
image; it was intended that the image
was to be gotten by analog means
and produced in analog.) The ma-
chine was of poor quality, but people
had a lot of fun making fonts for it.
After three years of this, so many peo-
ple had come up to the Stanford AI
Lab just to use that machine that the
parking lot would be only half full on
a day that the XGP was busted. An im-
portant part of their lifestyle was to
be able to use this printer. And you
see that there's this lurking tendency
in a lot of people to experiment.
When IBM puts out another type ball
for the Selectric typewriter. Olde
English or something, all of a sudden
thousands of documents are created
with Olde English in all caps. People
just love to see something new that
they can control and make words
come out in a different way. This is
lurking everywhere, and it is blossom-
ing now because it's becoming avail-
able to people through less expensive
machines all the time. So I know a
revolution is coming. Some of the out-
put people generate will be atrocious,
but it will also have the good effect
that people will take pride in their
work: they will put some more time
into it and do a good job.

BYTE: Is T E X finished at this point?
Knuth: Yes. Absolutely.

BYTE: Are you going to move on?
Knuth: I'm going to write volume 4.
When I get back from sabbatical I'm
going to spend three months gearing
up to work on the book and start
writing in January '87. ■

172 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Get the speed

and brains
afa $5000 AT
for only $595.

Now give your PC the power
of an 80286 without paying a
huge price for it. And,
protect your PC investment
at the same time.
) Introducing the new
and incredible Victor
SpeedPac 286 r
Available at the introductory price of only $595,
the SpeedPac 286 is today's newest generation
turboboard. The SpeedPac 286 's microprocessor
is an 8 MHz 80286, a faster version than the AT's
80286. That's right. Even faster than the AT Which
means that it can make your IBM PC, PC/XT and
Victor VPC function over 600% faster.

The Ultimate Productivity Enhancer

The SpeedPac 286 works with your existing
PC software. Your software library is protected.
And, the SpeedPac 286 is an absolute breeze to
install. Measuring just 5" in length, it's the only
turboboard that fits into a half slot. An impressive
advantage since it frees your long slots for other
add-on cards.

60-Day Money-Back Guarantee

We're so sure you'll love the SpeedPac 286, we're
offering you a 60-day money-back guarantee. Plus,

IBM PC, PC/XT and PC-AT are registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation.

a one-year warranty. Our introductory price of
$595 is good only until March 31, 1986. So, act
now. After that, it will be priced at $795.

To order, please call toll-free: 1-800-248-5252
(in California: 1-800-248-5253).

Or simply mail in the coupon.

Victor Technologies Inc . , 380 El Pueblo Road, Scotts Valley, C A 95066
Attn: Order Processing

I'd like to order the SpeedPac 286 (or my PC, PC/XT or Victor VPC.
I enclose payment of $595* plus $5.00 shipping and handling. I under-
stand that if I'm dissatisfied at any time within 60 days, you'll refund my
money in full. Please call for details about quantity purchases.

Name .

Address .

City

. State .

Zip.

).

Telephone (

Method of Payment: Check Money Order MasterCard Visa_

Card # Exp.Date

Signature

*Add applicable sales tax to the following states: California, Georgia,
Illinois , New Jersey, New York and Ohio.

VICTOR

BM

Inquiry 346

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 173

THE CMS
POWER SERIES

Expansion Subsystems for IBM"

and

Compatible Computers

= 11

i 1

1! 1

^H

■q

■bi

The Power Drive™

Hard Disk Subsystems
10 to 120 MB

The Power Twin™

Hard Disk Plus Tape Backup
10 to 30 MB

The Power Tape™

Tape Backup Subsystems
10 to 60 MB

Features:

• One master AC circuit

• Three independent AC circuits

• AC line filter

AC surge suppressor

Fan

Triple output DC supply

The Power Center 7 '

Stackable expansion subsystem

Accepts up to two half height
30 MB disk or 60 MB tape drives.

ENERGIZE YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER

We Back You Up!
401 W. Dyer Rd. Santa Ana, CA 92707 (714) 549-9111

Inquiry 69 for End-Users Inquiry 70 for DEALERS ONLY.

TEXT PROCESSING

PROCESSING

STRINGS
IN SNOBOL4

by James E Gimpel

Some elegant examples of this languages
pattern-matching capabilities

TO THE MODERN PROGRAMMER familiar with micro-
computer operating systems, SNOBOL4 is perhaps more
like Prolog, APL, and LISP than Pascal, C Ada, and
Modula-2. Its strong points are its ease of use, portabili-
ty, free-floating (garbage-collectable) storage, and its great
facility for manipulating strings of characters. SNOBOL4
grew out of a mainframe environment (there was nothing
else back then) but inherits very little from its batch-
processing origins except one characteristic: size. Early
versions of SNOBOL (SNOBOL and SNOBOL3) could fit
comfortably within the equivalent of a I28K-byte main
memory environment, but SNOBOL4 could not. Hence
the adaptation of SNOBOL4 to the micro environment had
to wait until 2 56K-byte memory machines became wide-
ly available.

SNOBOL4 is a rich language. It contains fully dynamic
arrays and structures, the ability to convert strings at run
time to executable code, the ability to return variables
from functions (i.e., a function call may appear on the left-
hand side of an assignment operation), the ability to define
new operators or redefine or extend old ones, a form of
associative array called the table, and a comprehensive
set of tracing facilities. On top of this, it has a pattern-
matching facility so rich as to amount to a language within
a language.

Such flexibility is largely the result of an inner structure
that is harmonious, even elegant, in which all objects swim
about in a pool of common renewable (garbage-collect-
able) storage and can be uniformly designated by a small
one- or two-word descriptor. Whereas BASIC employs a

garbage-collection scheme in the support of inert data
(strings), APL in the support of arrays (of inert data), and
LISP in support of two-valued fixed-size recursive struc-
tures (containing the famous car and cdr fields), SNOBOL4
supports all of this plus garbage-collectable units of
varying size (arrays and structures) containing pointers
to other such units (in support of recursive data struc-
tures). Whereas APL has a healthy variety of array
operators, SNOBOL4 has a similarly healthy pattern-
matching facility employed in analyzing strings. One can
readily implement all of LISP (at least classic LISP) in
SNOBOL4, but the converse does not hold. The popularity
of LISP for artificial intelligence applications may have
something to do with its greater availability on small
machines and the existence of superb LISP programming
environments. Future systems, with larger memory avail-
able, will almost certainly be able to support an interac-
tive SNOBOL4 environment, and it will be interesting to
see whether SNOBOL4 regains the luster that it once
possessed.

Ease of Use

For years, SNOBOL has been a synonym for programming
ease, especially in its specialized area: string processing.

[continued)
)ames F. Gimpel received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and
spent 1 5 years working at Bell Laboratories. He is currently an
associate professor at Lehigh University and can be contacted at the
Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Lehigh
University. Bethlehem. PA 18015.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 175

SN0B0L4

For example,

A = B C

will concatenate strings B and C and assign the result to
A. As another example,

A 'Cat' = Tiger'

will scan the string A looking for the substring 'Cat' and
(if found) replace it with Tiger'. Also,

LOOP S"= :S(LOOP)

will search S for a blank, replacing it with nothing and,
if successful, branch to label LOOP, thereby repeating the
process until all blanks are removed from S.

To carry out these operations in most other languages
requires a detailed prescription for the sequential index-
ing through one, two, or three arrays of characters and,
in the case of substitution of one string for another, a
sophisticated storage-management facility. Yet here they
are specified with the simplicity and ease of addition or
subtraction. It is for reasons such as these that SNOBOL4
has been characterized as a nonprocedural (you don't
have to specify the exact procedure) or DWIM (do what
I mean) language. It has also been described as a right-
hemisphere language, referring to the fact that the appeal
is to the artistic or intuitive portion of the programmer's
brain rather than the logical and exact but plodding left
hemisphere.

The original SNOBOL did not have much more than
these basic fundamental operations and was quite suc-
cessful. Replacement associated with the conditional
branch is all that you need to program anything that is
programmable (shown by Markov in 1956 and called the
Markov algorithm). SNOBOL3 added arithmetic opera-
tions and functions and a more abundant pattern facility.

SNOBOL4 is the most recent and easily the most sump-
tuous of this series of languages. Its pattern-matching facili-
ty is so powerful that a pattern could be written that could
match SNOBOL4 itself, i.e., an arbitrary SNOBOL4 pro-
gram. By the introduction of alternation to the set of pat-
tern operators and by elevating patterns to the status of
data objects and using deferred evaluation (a kind of in-
direction), you can directly translate any BNF (Backus-Naur
Form) expression into a SNOBOL4 pattern. It's worthwhile
presenting a simple example of this. Suppose we want to
match simple arithmetic expressions involving ' + ', 'A',
and parentheses. We may assign

F= 'A' | '(' *E ')'

By this we are assigning to F (for factor) a pattern that
matches either A' or a '(' followed by an E (for expres-
sion) followed by ')'• The *E means "defer evaluation of
E until pattern-matching time— not at the time of assign-
ment." Then we write

E = *F( ' + ' *E | NULL)

This specifies that E is a pattern that matches any fac-

tor (F) followed optionally by a ' + ' followed by an instance
of E. If the ' + ' is not there, NULL will match the null
string. To apply the pattern E to match the contents of
a string S we may employ it in a pattern-matching state-
ment as in

S E

or more likely we might embed the E in another, larger
pattern.

Not only can the patterns of SNOBOL4 encompass all
of BNF but, through the deferred evaluation mechanism
(applied to functions), they can make any test at pattern-
matching time. Theoretically, a pattern can be written to
match anything recognizable. This goes considerably
beyond the capabilities of BNF.

But if SNOBOL4 can recognize an arbitrarily complex
pattern, so what? Would that facility be merely a program-
ming curiosity? Or could it be used successfully in a prac-
tical translation process? Perhaps surprisingly, it took a
number of years to realize how this could be accomplished
easily and naturally within the existing language facilities.
I will present an outline of this technique toward the end
of this article.

An Interactive Environment

Although SNOBOL4 lacks a formal interactive environment
as part of the implementation, you can easily write a sim-
ple interactive testing facility. One such is shown below,
and the novice SNOBOL4 programmer is urged to write
something like this in order to test expressions or small
sections of programs:

LOOP

STMT
END

S_ = INPUT :F(END)

S_ ';' :S(STMT)

OUTPUT = EVAL(S_) :(LOOP)

C_ = CODE(S_ '; :(LOOP);' ):S<C_>
OUTPUT = '*** Syntax' :(LOOP)

What the program does is this: If the input line contains
a semicolon, the line is taken to be a SNOBOL4 statement
(or statements separated by semicolons) and is executed.
If it does not contain a semicolon, it is assumed to be a
SNOBOL4 expression, and it is evaluated and its value
printed. In either case, flow of control goes back to LOOP.
The keys to converting strings of text into executable
SNOBOL4 code are the functions EVAL() and CODE(). The
EVAL() function evaluates expressions (like a function of
the same name in LISP) and the CODE() function con-
verts strings of text into an executable form. The strings
of text are assumed to be SNOBOL4 statements separated
by semicolons.

The first line of the program reads a line from the con-
sole (on an end-of-file condition a failure occurs, direct-
ing control to the END label where the program ter-
minates). We deliberately used a strange variable name,
S to avoid collision with any user variables. We test to

{continued)

176 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

H°x°3

1ED

Industry Standards Upgraded!

The Models 630 And 640 Are 100% Compatible With The
AT&T 6300 and 6300 Plus!

A perfect upgrade/replace-
ment for the standard IBM
color graphics monitor and
card, the Taxan model 630
and 555®create a higher
resolution at a greater
savings!

IBM Display
IBM CGA
Color Adaptor

TAXAN 630

TAXAN 555

SCG Board

$924.00

$920.00

PRICE/PERFORMANCE RATIO

Super High

Resolution Text and Graphics.

IBM

TAXAN

Screen Test— This actual unretouched photograph
demonstrates the superior text resolution created by the
TAXAN 630 monitor and 555 color cardl For maximum
resolution and ease of viewing, Taxan's the wlnnerl

Superior Text
and Graphics
Beyond IBM.

640(H) x 200{V)
Resolution
(640(H) x 400(V)
Non-interlaced
Resolution

0.37mm Dot Pitch
24.75Khz Scan
Frequency
100% compatible
with IBM PC, XT,
and AT® when
used with the
Taxan 555 board.
$675.00 Suggested
Retail

■a

► The Taxan 555 is basically
equivalent to the IBM
standard color board. This
means that the 555 is 100%
compatible with all IBM
software I

COMPATABILITY IBM TAXAN

Text Mode 16 Colors 1 6 Colors

320 X 200 4 Colors 4 Colors

640 X 200 1 Color I Color

Alphanumeric Text Resolution

Character Cell 8X8 10X16

Scan Frequency 15.75 Khz 24.75 Khz

Compatible with AT&T 6300 Computer

RGB Color,

and

FOUR Monochrome

Capabilities

in

One

Monitor!

RG

W* No one
else offers the
monochrome options
available with the new
Taxan 600 series!
The Taxan 630 & 640 moni-
tors offer Green, Amber,
B&W Reverse, and a White
on Blue Background as their
total spectrum of mono-
chrome options.
Only Taxan offers such
a wide variety of mono-
chrome capabilities.

REVERSE BLUE

.•ftXWTMKWIlWflHTflXftKrftXftK.

ilAXftHTftXWlftXflWTfixWIflXfiKTi

TflXfiMTflXflKTflXfiKTfiXflhTflXflMT
REVERSE B&W

Total CAD/CAM
Compatibility
720 x 400
Resolution!

The Taxan 640
The Ultimate in
Monitor Resolution.

640(H) x 400(V)

Non-interlaced

Resolution

4,000 Character
Display Capability

0.31mm Dot Pitch

24.75Khz Scan
Frequency

Compatible with AT&T 6300 Computer

100% Compatible

with the new
generation of
graphics boards
Taxan (555),
Persyst B.O.B .®,
Sigma 400®,

Artist II®, STB 400®

and others for

the IBM PC, XT, and AT.

$775.00 Suggested
Retail

1985 Taxan Corporation

T&X^J

TAXAN CORPORATION

18005 CORTNEY CT„

INDUSTRY, CA 91748 (818) 810-1291

TAXAN EAST, MIDDLESEX BUSINESS CTR.

111 CORPORATE BLVD. SUITE E

S. PLAINSFIELD, NJ 07080 (201)769-6500

•IBM, IBM PC. XT and AT are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corp.. 'APPLE is a registered trademark of Apple Computers Inc.. TAXAN 555 is a registered trademark of Taxan Corp, "PERSYST B.O.B.
is a registered trademark of Emulex Corp., *SIGMA 400 is a registered trademark of Sigma Designs, 'ARTIST II is a registered trademark of Control Systems. *STB 400 is a registered trademark of STB Systems, Inc. AT&T 6300
and 6300 Plus are registered trademarks of AT&T Information Systems, inc.

Inquiry 323 for End-Users. Inquiry 324 for DEALERS ONLY.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 177

SNOBOL4

see if the line contains a semicolon, and if so we branch
to STMT. Otherwise we call upon EVAL() to evaluate the
expression and print out the results. Control then returns
to LOOP.

At the statement labeled STMT we call upon the CODE
function. Notice that we first textually append to the string
a jump to the label LOOP so that we are assured of get-
ting there after execution. We precede the GOTO with a
semicolon so that there is no interference from any other
GOTO construct in the line. The value returned by CODE()
is a data object; the data object represents code that is
potentially executable. No execution occurs until we

branch to the code by means of the <C > construct

in the GOTO field (note the angle brackets, which are
different from the parenthesized forms in other state-
ments).

If CODE fails, we had a syntax error, and we receive a
report to this effect.

This interactive environment is very primitive but is quite
effective in trying to figure cut what the language does
with various constructs. Below is a sample session:

Human:
Human:
Human:
Machine:

S = A QUICK BROWN FOX';

S 'FOX' = WOLF';
S
A QUICK BROWN WOLF

You must take care to indent the statements or else
SNOBOL4 will interpret the first identifier (S in the above)
as a label.

"Bread and Butter" Facilities

Before proceeding with intricate SNOBOL4 algorithms, it
is wise to consider a garden-variety string-processing prob-
lem and see how SNOBOL4 is uniquely capable of de-
molishing its complexity.

Consider the following problem (one which I had to write
recently in another language, unfortunately). The input file
contains text all in lowercase. Some of the information in
the file, every instance of some selected set of names, must
be converted to uppercase. The names to be converted
are to be read from some other file (which I will simply
refer to as file number 2). The SNOBOL4 program in listing
I will perform the conversion.

The third line of the program associates the variable
NAMES with file number 2. We subsequently employ
TRIM(NAMES), which delivers a line from file 2 stripped
of trailing blanks. At LOOP1 the names to be capitalized
are read in. They are grouped together in a big pattern.
In the line following LOOP1 , this pattern is associated with
the variable NM. This causes NM to be assigned the char-
acters matched by PATTERN.

At LOOP2 the lines of the input file are read. At LOOP3
they are repeatedly matched and replaced by their upper-
case equivalent. Finally the LINE is output and the pro-
gram returns to LOOP2 for another line from the input file.

Few, if any, programming languages can match this level
of simplicity and, if it were not for the labels strewn about,

you might even say elegance. (I should mention that no
conclusive experimental evidence exists to indicate that
GOTOs are hard to follow by human readers. Indeed the
evidence for small programs seems to be the opposite.)
A purist would point out that you may not want to blind-
ly search for names in a file, since they might be em-
bedded in longer names. This deficiency is easily corrected
by placing the following line after LOOP1 :

PATTERN = (POS(O) | NOTANY(LOWS)) PATTERN
+ (RPOS(O) | NOTANY(LOWS))

This indicates that the string to be matched must be at
the left edge of the string (POSition 0) or be preceded
by a nonlowercase and it must be followed by either the
extreme right of the string (Right POSition 0) or a non-
lowercase character. | Editor's note: The + in the leftmost col-
umn indicates a continued line in SNOBOL4.)

At this stage it is instructive to consider how much work
would be involved in writing this program in your own
favorite programming language and then, once this ver-
sion is written, how arduous (and error-prone) it might be
to make the enhancement I just mentioned.

Structured SNOBOL4 Programs

SNOBOL4 has a function (or subroutine) capability with
an unusual twist: the function's definition is executable.
This results in great flexibility but, if used unwisely can
serve to destructure SNOBOL4 programs.

Consider the example shown in listing 2, which defines
a function ROM AN(n) that converts an integer to Roman-
numeral form. Thus ROMAN(23) returns 'XXIII'.

The function starts with DEFINE, which when executed
establishes the existence of the ROMAN function as start-
ing at label ROMAN and continuing until the thread of
execution takes it to a RETURN (or FRETURN or
NRETURN) statement. After defining the function, we
jump around the body of the function to avoid flowing
prematurely into it.

The first line of the function rips off the last character
from the string N. "What string?" you say, "you passed
ROMAN a number." No matter: the conversion from
number to string is made automatically by the pattern
matcher. This first pattern match looks strange until you
realize that the binary dot operator has higher precedence
that concatenation. RPOS(1) matches a position just
before the rightmost character in the string and LEN(1)
matches a string of length 1. Consequently this one line
extracts the last character from the number (thus dividing
it by 10) and simultaneously assigns the remainder to T.

The second pattern match is contained on two lines. It
converts a number between and 9 to its Roman-numeral
equivalent. The pattern BREAK(S), where S is a string,
will match all characters up to but not including one of
the characters in S. The string beginning with '0, 1 1,2 II, 3 . . .'
is a good example of simultaneously defining a data struc-
ture and accessing it. In virtually all other languages an
array would be allocated, a name assigned to it, and the

178 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

SN0B0L4

Listing

I: This program reads a series of names from one file a\

\d converts a select number of those names to uppercase. The

names to be converted are read from a second file.

LOWS = 'abcdef ghi jk Imnopqrstuvwxyz'

UPS = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'

INPUT( 'NAMES' , 2 )

PATTERN = TRIM(NAMES)

L00P1

PATTERN = PATTERN | TRIM(NAMES)
PATTERN = PATTERN . NM

:S(LOOP1)

L00P2

LINE = INPUT

:F(END)
:S(L00P3)

L00P3

LINE PATTERN = REPLACE (NM, LOWS, UPS )

OUTPUT = LINE

:(L00P2)

END

Listing 2: SNOBOL code for the function ROMAN() that converts an integer to Roman numerals.

DEFINE( 'ROMAN(N)T') :(ROMAN_END)

ROMAN N RPOS(1) LEN(1) . T :F (RETURN)

'0,1I,2II,3III,4IV,5V,6VI,7VII,8VIII,9IX,'
+ T BREAK(',') . T

ROMAN = REPLACE( ROMAN(N) , ' IVXLCDM' , 'XLCDM**' ) T
+ :S(RETURN)F(FRETURN)

ROMAN END

array initialized and then accessed. Anyone reading the
program would then be burdened with finding the array
and then perhaps determining where values were assigned
to it.

The third statement serves to multiply the Roman equiv-
alent of N by 10 using the REPLACE statement; it also
tacks on the Romanized version of the remainder.

This algorithm could be rewritten for most programming
languages, but few come close to the SNOBOL4 rendi-
tion in simplicity and compactness.

Everything Is a String

When using SNOBOL4, it is possible to exploit the
paradigm that all the world is a string. That is, all data
structures can be represented, however convoluted, in
string form. For example, although you can write sort
routines for SNOBOL4 that involve arrays or linked lists,
probably the simplest sort to write is one where the basic
aggregate data object is a comma-separated list, as in the
following:

\JOE.PATJOM, 1

If S is such a string, a new name, NM, can be inserted
into S by a pattern-matching statement:

S 7 (BREAK(7) $ T *LGT(T,NM) | RPOS(0)) . T

NM

T

Note that LGT will be successful if the first argument
is lexically greater than the second, that the * preceding
LGT defers evaluation until pattern-matching time, and that
$ T assigns a substring to T dynamically. Thus for each

comma in the subject string an assignment to T is made
and that value is compared against NM to see if it is greater.
Once such a T is found, NM is inserted just before it.

Data objects that are normally handled with linked lists,
such as trees, can also be encoded as strings. For exam-
ple, the tree consisting of a root node labeled A and con-
taining two leaves B and C can be encoded in string form
as

'A[B,C]'

In general, a binary tree is defined as a simple name
or a string having the form:

name [ tree , tree ]

If this is the case, we may define a pattern to match a
tree as

TREE = NAME ( '[' *TREE 7 *TREE ']' | NULL )

Consider then the following problem. Find in some tree

called LARGE TREE an interior node identified as Div\

replace this node with one called 'Rdiv', and reverse its
two subtrees. The following statement will do this:

LARGE_TREE 'Div' '[' *TREE . T1 7 *TREE . T2 ']' =
+ 'Rdiv' '[' T27T1 T

I need hardly point out that few (if any) other languages
allow you to search an entire aggregate of information and
replace and rearrange selected contents all in a single
statement.
The advantages of employing strings as data structures

[continued)

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 179

SN0B0L4

Listing 3: A portion of a SNOBOL program to generate random sentences.

DEFINE ( 'SELECT(S)N' ) : (SELECT_END)

SELECT

S RPOS(1) LEN(1) . N

N - RANDOM (N)

S (N-1) ARB . SELECT N : (RETURN)

SELECT.

.END

DEFS = TABLE ()

DEFS

' 'SENT'

= '0The <NOUN> <VERB>s the <NOUN>r

DEFS

" 'NOUN' '

- '0boy1man2dog3<NOUN> who <VERB>s the <N0UN>4'

DEFS

' 'VERB' '

= '0bite1walk2pet3l f ck4smack5'

STACK = '<SENT>

SENTENCE =

L1

STACK POS(0) '<' BREAK('>') . NM »>» = :F(L2)

STACK = SELECT( DEFS[NM] ) STACK :(L1)

L2

STACK BREAK('<') .S - :F(L3)

SENTENCE = SENTENCE S :(L1)

L3

SENTENCE = SENTENCE STACK

are not only that you can employ the powerful pattern-
matching operations on entire aggregates but that print-
ing, saving, and restoring aggregates and expressing ag-
gregate constants are all immediately available in the lan-
guage. Structures become humanly visible for debugging
and analysis; also, they may be dumped to disk in a
machine-independent and portable manner.

Not Everything Is a String

Although it is tempting to treat everything as a string, there
are many instances where built-in aggregates within the
language serve as a better expression of some algorithm,
to mention nothing about the increased efficiency

Consider the following program that will generate ran-
dom sentences from the schema:

SENT = the NOUN VERBs the NOUN

NOUN = boy | man | dog | NOUN who VERBs the

NOUN
VERB = bite | walk | pet | lick | smack

Ttoo sample sentences from an infinite number of pos-
sibilities are

the dog bites the dog

the dog who walks the boy smacks the man

A program to generate such random sentences is given
in listing 3. SENTENCE emerges from the sequence equal
to some random sentence. The program also assumes the
existence of a random-number generator RANDOM(N),
which returns a random integer uniformly distributed in
the range from I to N.

The program is something of a halfway house between
encoding the data as a string and using a built-in ag-
gregate. Here, we use the powerful and convenient TABLE
data structure, a kind of associative array, to record the
possible alternatives for syntactic variables (nonterminals).

Thus one can assign to and obtain the value of
DEFS['SENT] as readily as one can access A[2] (where
A is an array) in some other language. As an added bonus
the value of DEFS['SENT] can be any object (string,
number, array, or even another table).

The list of alternatives is kept as a string. A stack is
needed to retain the unexpanded sentential forms, but
the stack is implemented as a string rather than as some
composite structure.

The SELECT() function selects a random component of
the list of alternates by doing a pattern match. The latter
employs ARB, a pattern that matches an arbitrary string.

Another variation on the design of a stack in SNOBOL4
is the use of structures (or, as they are descriptively
denoted, programmer-defined data types). We define
three entry points in a package of routines that deal with
the stack: PUSH, POP, and TOP. PUSH(X) will push the
value X (it may be any type), POP() will remove the most
recent item pushed, and TOP()will simply return the most
recent item pushed (without popping). As an interesting
twist, and something that can't be done in just about any
other language, is that PUSH() and TOP() will return
variables. In the case of TOP() this means that you may
not merely observe the top value on the stack, but you
may also modify it as in

TOP() = ABC

PUSH() will place a new item on the stack before return-
ing the top value as a variable. We will exploit this variable-
returning property of PUSH in a pattern-matching con-
text as in

Pattern $ *PUSH()

The intent here is that any item matched by Pattern is
pushed onto a stack. The binary $ operator normally

[continued)

180 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

Powerful MS-DOS Software.

For the IBM® -PC, XT, AT & others with generic MS-DOS/PC-DOS 2.0 or higher.

t40t

COPV

Only

pro

\ec

W»

Each!

UTAH

TM

D

D

D
D
D

□

COBOL

Whether student, teacher or professional programmer,

this is the one you've heard so much about.

It's easy to use. Compiles 5000 statements on a 128K

machine.

170 clear error messages, i.e. DATA-NAME IS

MISSING OR MISSPELLED.

Distribute your object code programs royalty free.

Small object code programs conserve disk space.

Fast compile times to increase programmer pro-
ductivity. Over 25 times faster than one compiler

costing $995!

You get a diskette and 213-page manual with lots of

examples and 16 complete COBOL source code

programs. $39.95.
Also available: COBOL Application Packages, Book 1 $9.95.

UTAH

PASCAL

14-digit precision, BCD math, no round-off errors

with decimal arithmetic for business and floating point + 63

-64 for scientific.

Avery niceTRACEstyledebugging.

Arrays up to8dimensionsand64Kstrings.

External procedures and functions with dynamic

auto-loading.

One-step compile, no assembly or link required.

You get a 132-page manual and diskette. $39.95

□

□
□
□

□
□

UTAH

PILOT

TM

□

□

D

Perfect for industrial training, office training, drill
and testing, virtually all programmed instruction, word
puzzle games, and data entry facilitated by prompts.
John Starkweather, Ph.D., the inventor of the PILOT
language, has added a built-in full-screen text editor,
and much more.

Meets all PILOT-73 standards for full compatibility with
older versions.
D You get a diskette, 125-page manual and ten useful
sample programs. $39.95.

Also still available for 8-bit machines with CP/M® is our world famous
Nevada Software Series used by 50,000 customers in 40 countries.
These include Nevada COBOL, Nevada FORTRAN, Nevada PASCAL,
Nevada PILOT, Nevada BASIC and Nevada EDIT. $39.95 each.
Satisfaction guaranteed. If for any reason you're not completely
satisfied, just return the package within 15 days in good condition, and
we'll refund your money.

IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp.
CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research. MS is a trademark
of Microsoft Corp. © 1985 Ellis Computing, Inc.

D
□

□
□
□
□
□
□
□

n

UTAH

FORTRAN

FORTRAN IV based upon ANSI-66 standards.

Very fast compile times and easy to use.

IF . . THEN . . ELSE constructs.

Chaining with blank and named common.

Copy statement.

ENCODEand DECODE.

Free-format input and output.

Avery niceTRACEstyledebugging.

150 English language error messages.

You get a diskette, and 223-page manual. $39.95

TM

UTAH

EDIT

TM

□

□

□

□

A character-oriented full-screen video display text

editor designed specifically to create COBOL,

FORTRAN and PASCAL programs.

Only requires 15K disk space so it can fit on the

same disk as your compilers.

Completely customizable tab stops, default file

type, keyboard control key layout and CRTby menu

selection.

Diskette comes with easy to read 58-page manual. $39.95.

UTAH

TM

BASIC

□ This interpreter has a built-in full-screen editor.
D Single- and Multi-line user definable functions.

□ BCD Math- no round-off errors.

□ Full Matrix operations.

□ You get 220-page manual and diskette. $39.95.

Handling/Shipping: No shipping charge within US. Overseas
add $10 for first package, $5 each additional. Checks must be
in US Dollars, drawn on a US bank.

Utah Software requires 128K RAM and PC-DOS or MS-DOS2.0or higher.

HOW TO ORDER. Send check or money order to Ellis Computing, Inc.
with VISA or MASTERCARD order by phone. Sorry no COD's.

^m ^^ Ellis Con

M ^ 5655 Rigi

m ■ Reno, Ne

W Phone (7

^^^^ SINCE 1977

ELLIS COMPUTING

Ellis Computing, Inc.
5655 Riggins Court, Suite 10
Reno, Nevada 89502
Phone (702) 827-3030

TM

Inquiry 130

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 181

SN0B0L4

Listing 4: A SNOBOlrsimulated stack. PUSH(X) pushes X onto the stack, POP() removes the item most recently pushed,
and TOP() returns the top stack entry without popping.

DEFINEf 'PUSH(X)' )
DEFINE( 'POP()' )
DEFINE( 'TOP()')
DATA( 'LINK(NEXT, VALUE)' )

:(STACK_END)

PUSH

PUSH_POP = LINK( PUSH_POP, X )
PUSH - . VALUE ( PUSH_POP )

: (NRETURN)

POP

IDENT( PUSH_POP)

POP = VALUE (PUSH_POP)

PUSH_POP = NEXT( PUShLPOP )

:S(FRETURN)
: (RETURN)

TOP

IDENT( PUSH_POP)

TOP » . VALUE ( PUSH.POP )

:S(FRETURN)
: (NRETURN)

STACK,

END

associates a simple variable on the right with a pattern
on the left in such a way that, whenever the pattern
matches, the value is immediately assigned to the variable.
Here we are using a function call, but the basic idea is
the same provided the function returns a variable. By plac-
ing an asterisk in front of PUSH() we are deferring the
call to PUSH() to pattern-matching time rather than
pattern-building time. In this way it occurs repeatedly dur-
ing a pattern match, not just once when the pattern is
formed.

As an added bonus, POP() and TOP() fail if there are
no more items on the stack. Thus,

LOOP POP() :S(LOOP)

flushes the stack. The routines for the three functions are
in listing 4.

Parsing

By parsing we mean recognizing the syntactic structure
of a statement in some language. We can illustrate pars-

ing using a simple arithmetic expression. For example, if
the statement were

A = B * C + D

and if the language were any of a number of common pro-
gramming languages (including SNOBOL4), then a parse
would recognize that the = operator is being applied at
the highest level to two arguments, the first being A and
the second being an argument whose highest level
operator was a *, etc. The parsing facility that we saw early
in this article (E for expression and F for factor)' could
recognize simple expressions. Tlirning the recognizer into
an effective parser (i.e., something useful) means having
it either build the associated tree or carry out actions in
accordance with the meanings of the various tree com-
ponents in the prescribed order. Critical to this is the
SNOBOL4 dot operator. Consider the pattern

P1 . *A() P2 . *B() | P3 . *C()

[continued)

a message to our subscribers

From time to time we make the BYTE subscriber list available to other companies who wish to send our subscribers material
about their products. We take great care to screen these companies, choosing only those who are reputable, and whose
products, services, or information we feel would be of interest to you. Direct mail \s an efficient medium for presenting the
latest personal computer goods and services to our subscribers.

Many BYTE subscribers appreciate this controlled use of our mailing list, and look forward to finding information of interest
to them in the mail. Used are our subscribers' names and addresses only (no other information we may have \s ever given).

While we believe the distribution of this information \s of benefit to our subscribers, we firmly respect the wishes of any
subscriber who does not want to receive such promotional literature. Should you wish to restrict the use of your name,
simply send your request to the following address.

BYTE Magazine
Attn: Circulation Department, 70 Main St, Peterborough, NH 03458

i;nii

J82 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

NEW LANGUAGE BREAKS OLD RULES.
GIVES PROGRAMMERS POWER, SPEED AND SIMPLICITY.

Try this remarkable language, PROM AL™ for 30 Days AT NO RISK and...

We think you'll be thrilled with this
breakthrough system when you discover
its power, ease of use, and dazzling per-
formance on your IBM PC, Apple Ile/IIc,
or Commodore 64. But we don't
expect you to accept our claims for
PROM AL without proof, so we invite
you to explore the power of PROMAL on
your own during our 30-day trial period.

Broken Rules

Now that PROMAL 2.0 has broken
the rules, a structured language doesn't
have to be slow, unwieldy and difficult to
use. PROMAL is fast, elegant, and simple.

What Is PROMAL?

PROMAL stands for PROgrammer's
Micro Application Language. But
PROMAL is more than a high-level lan-
guage, it's a total structured program-
ming development system with a fast,
one-pass compiler, a versatile full-screen
editor, plus an integrated machine-
language subroutine library. And for
APPLE and Commodore systems it
includes a DOS-like system "Executive."

Better By Design

PROMAL was designed from "scratch"
for optimum performance and ease of
use on microcomputers. It has a simpli-
fied syntax with no awkward terminators

PROMAL 2.0 FEATURES

COMPILED LANGUAGE

• Structured indentation syntax

• No line numbers or terminators

• Long variable names (31 characters)

• Global, Local, & Argument variables

• Byte, Word, Integer & Real data types

• Decimal or Hex number types

• Functions & Procedures with passed arguments

• Predefined DATA of any type

• Multi-Dimensional Arrays (any type)

• Strings & pointers

• Control Statements: IK IF-ELSE, WHILE, FOR,
CHOOSE, REPEAT-UNTIL, BREAK, NEXT,
INCLUDE, ESCAPE, REFUGE

• Bit-operators, shifts, type casts

• Variables at any memory location

• Simple Machine Language interface

• Recursion supported

• Program chaining and overlays (IMPORT/EXPORT)

• Separate compilation of modules

• Load and run relocatable M/L programs

• Compile errors trapped for Editor

EXECUTIVE (APPLE II & C64 Only)

• Command driven, with line editing

• Multiple user programs in memory at once

• Function key definitions

• Progam abort and pause

• Prior command recall

• I/O Re-direction & batch jobs

• "DOS"-like commands: COPY, RENAME, DELETE,
display FILES, TYPE, HELP, etc.

• Memory MAP SET, and display commands

EDITOR

• Full-screen, cursor driven

• Function key controlled

• Line insert, delete, search

• Stringsearchand replace

• Block copy, move, delete & file read/write operations

• Auto indent, undent support

LIBRARY

• 50 Resident Machine-language commands

• Call by name with arguments

• String handling (9 routines)

• Re-directable I/O (STDIN & STDOUT)

• Formatted numeric output

• Decimal & Hexadecimal I/O

• Block filJ/move/readAvrite

• Cursor control & line editing

• Data type conversion

• Random number function

• Real function support (in PROMAL):

ABS, ATAN, COS, EXP LOG, LOGli, POWER, SIN,
SQRT, TAN

• Modem device support & much more

like ";" or "}" and indentation is part

of the syntax, so structuring your code
is natural and easy. Just compare
PROMAL with BASIC in this example:

Equivalent Program Segments

— PROMAL

REPEAT

PROMPT_AT 5.24, "Add Chg/Quit?"
IF Reply = A
ADD Item
Newjtems = NewJtems + 1

CHANGE Item
UNTIL Reply = 'Q'

11910 REM BASIC

1 1920CL =5:LN « 24:PRS = 'Add.'Chg<Quil?"
1 1925 GOSUB9490:REM GET REPLY
11930 IF RP$ "A" THEN 11950
1 1 940 19= IT;GOSUB 10100REM ADD
1 1945 NI = NI+1:GOTO 11920
1 1 950 IF RP$<>"C" THEN 1 1970
1 1960 I9 = IT:GOSUB6050;REM CHG
1 1 970 IF RP$o"Q" THEN 1 1920

PROMAL is readable and understand-
able. You see the logic from the structure.
And PROMAL lets you call procedures
by name -so no more GOSUBs. But
there's more.

Slick Editor

Editing your source is a snap with the
specially-designed and integrated full-
screen Editor-it not only helps you
structure your program, it even finds
compilation errors- automatically.

Quick Compiler

The compiler is a lightning-fast,
one-pass, recursive descent design. On
the IBM PC it crunches source to object
at 2000 lines per minute, and it's
equally impressive on the Apple and
C64. And your PROMAL source code is
portable from machine to machine.
That means your source can be used on
all PROMAL target machines.

Run-Time Speed Demon

PROMAL blows away Apple II and
C64 languages from BASIC and PASCAL
to FORTH. (Send $3 for a copy of our
full benchmark report.) It's 2000%
faster than BASIC. And on a normal
IBM PC, the native 8088 code from
PRO MAL beat Turbo Pascal 3 . by
10% on the standard sieve benchmark!

DOS For Those Without

If you don't have a real "DOS," then
PROMAL gives you a true operating
system environment with the built-in
operating system Executive. (See box.)

Order Form for PROMAL 30-Day Trial!

My system is (check one)

□ IBM PC/100% compatibles □ APPLE Ilc/IIe

□ COMMODORE 64/128

Please RUSH me:

□ PROMAL Developers System- Compiler, Editor,
Library, Demo disk 280-page manual, (Plus Execu-
tive for Apple and C-64) and stand-alone program
generation (no royalties).

$99.95 + 5.00 Shipping & Handling

□ End-User System for Apple Ilc/IIe and Commodore
64/128— all features of Developer's Version except
stand-alone program generation (Executive needed
for program execution)

$49.95 + 5.00 ShipDing& Handling

□ Graphics ToolBox (App*le/C64 only)- 20 routines
for ni-res graphics: windows, clipping, text-on-

fraphics using scaled, rotated, user-defined fonts.
29.95 + 2.50 Shipping & Handling

, MEMBER

, gjgjflljjj MiQ CHfflOi

Outside Opinion

Naturally we're enthusiastic about
PROMAL, but here's what other pro-
grammers are saying:

"Excellent. . . an ideal development

system Well done indeed!"

M.T.V
Naperville, III.

"I am ... so amazed by PROMAL ... I
cannot believe the high degree of excel-
lence of this entire package."

C. P., Ph.D.

Ridgeway, New York

"I don't know that I've ever seen a
[system] as thoughtfully designed and as
skillfully executed as PROMAL. Its
logic and ease of programming are truly
remarkable. Its speed of execution is
phenomenal . . . congratulations "
E.C.R.
Alexandria, VA

Safety In Numbers

SMA, Inc. has been satisfying cus-
tomers (over 100,000) since 1982 with
innovative microcomputer products. Now
you can join our thousands of satisfied
PROMAL users, by trying it today.

Try It For 30 Days On Us

Send us some bucks and we'll send
you PROMAL on trial for 30 days. If for
any reason whatsoever you are not
satisfied, just send it back for a

quick refund of your purchase price. No
questions asked. No risk.

How To Order.

Call TOLL-FREE to order with your
credit card or use the handy order form
below to send in your check or money-
order for your 30-day trial. Don't wait,
you deserve the power of PROMAL today!

1-800-762-7874

In NC: 919-878-3600

Systems Management Associates, Inc.
3325 Executive Drive, Dept. PB-6
Raleigh, North Carolina 27609

VMHrMr

PROMAL runs on IBM PC/PCjr with 192K,
Commodore 64/128, APPLE He, or APPLE He
with 80 Col. 128K Card,
and is NOT COPY-
PROTECTED.

Please charge my

□ Visa

□ MasterCard

□ American Express

D My check is enclosed
Card Number

Signature _
Name

Address _

City

State

-Exp.Date.

.Zip.

NC residents add 4Vi% sales tax.

Foreign orders add $20. 00 additional shipping.

PROMAL is a trademark of Systems Management Associates, Inc. Turbo Pascal is a trademark of Borland International, Inc.

Inquiry 318

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 183

SN0B0L4

More About
SNOBOL

The original SNOBOL developers at Bell Laboratories
were Dave Farber, Ralph Griswold, and Ivan Polonsky.
Jim Poage joined this team for the development of
SNOBOL4.

Ralph Griswold publishes a SNOBOL4 Information
Bulletin, and this is available from the Department of Com-
puter Science, University of Arizona, TUcson, AZ 85721.

There are a number of good implementations of the
SNOBOL4 language for the MS-DOS environment. One
is by Mark Emmer of Catspaw and is published by
Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ). This low-cost package
contains excellent documentation and a large number of
example programs. The examples given in this article were
tested under that implementation.

For production purposes you may want to investigate
a version of SNOBOL4 by Robert Dewar (New York, NY).
His implementation runs at speeds approaching those
achieved by compiler implementations of the language.
He has versions of SNOBOL4 (uniformly referred to as
SPITBOb-Speedy Implementation of SNOBOL4) for a
number of machines including those that run UNIX and
MS-DOS.

The original SNOBOL4 manual is still one of the best
documents describing SNOBOL4; it was authored by its
implementors— Griswold, Poage, and Polonsky— and is
available from Prentice-Hall. A SNOBOL4 primer by Ralph
and Madge Griswold is available from the same publisher.
The internals of the original implementation of SNOBOL4
have been described by Ralph Griswold (available from
Freeman and Company, San Francisco).

A history of the SNOBOL4 language has been written
by Ralph Griswold and appears in History of Programming
languages, edited by R. L. Wexelb'lat (Academic Rress, New
York, NY).

A collection of SNOBOL4 algorithms, some- tricky and
some plain, was published by John Wiley and Sons, New
York, NY, authored by J. F. Gimpel. Some of the examples
in this article were based on that collection.

Recall that binary dot binds more closely than con-
catenation. The binary-dot generator causes the valuer
matched by a pattern to be assigned to the right-hand
argument if the overall pattern is successful and if the dot
operator's left-hand argument has contributed to its suc-
cess. Thus if P1 and P2 match, then A() and B() are called
(in that order); but if P1 matches, P2 fails, and P3 matches,
then only C() is called. This is precisely what we need to
extract all and only those items that have been success-
fully matched.

Let P be a pattern and consider

P . *PUSH()

If this pattern is embedded in a larger pattern, and if P
successfully matches within the larger pattern, then the
string matched by P is assigned to the right-hand compo-
nent. As we have seen previously, PUSH() returns a vari-
able, so it makes sense to have a function call on the right-
hand side. But what is the * doing there? As we have seen
earlier, in the case of the binary $ operator, this serves
to inhibit evaluation of PUSHQ until the assignment.

If we are interested in only calling a function for its side-
effects, we may associate it with a pattern that always suc-
ceeds. One such is NULL, which is predefined to be the
null string (as is every variable). Thus,

NULL . *F()

will succeed in invoking F(), but F() must return a variable
in order to satisfy the value assigner. For this we will simply
return a dummy variable named, suitably, DUMMY.

The statements in listing 5 define in pattern E a simple
arithmetic expression parser based on these principles.
It not only parses arithmetic expressions but also invokes
semantic routines associated with each of the four fun-
damental algebraic operations and unary minus. The
semantic routines serve to evaluate the expression, con-
verting numeric strings into integers and evaluating iden-
tifiers for their (presumably numeric) value. The overall ef-
fect of a pattern match is to interpret or evaluate arithmetic
expressions (a restricted version of the EVAL function
described earlier), leaving the final value on the stack.

The semantic routines required to interpret the arith-

[continued)

Listing 5: \n this code fragment, pattern E becomes a simple arithmetic expression parser.

LET - 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'

DIGITS - '0123456789'

IDEN - (ANY(LET) (SPAN(LET DIGITS) | ")) . *PUSH()
+ NULL . *EV()

INTEGER » SPAN(DIGITS) . *PUSH()

PRIMARY - IDEN | INTEGER | '(' *E ')'

FACTOR - PRIMARY | '-' PRIMARY . *NEG()

TERM = FACTOR
+ ARBNO( '*' FACTOR . *MUL() | '/' FACTOR . *DIV() )

E - TERM ARBNO( '+' TERM . *ADD() | '-' TERM . *SUB() ) '

184 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Good news for software developers:

No
royalties

on Btrieve!

Effective January 1, SoftCraft will no longer charge royalties for our
Btrieve file management system.

By dropping royalties, we're giving software authors and application
developers something to bank on: increased profitability on every copy of
a Btrieve application that is used or sold. What you do with Btrieve is up
to you. Whether you're developing applications for a handful of users or
hundreds, you pay for Btrieve only once— no strings attached. The price
remains the same.

With no royalties, doing business with SoftCraft is easier and more
profitable than ever. We're showing our appreciation to current Btrieve
users, while furthering the rapid expansion of Btrieve applications. We
believe this move will reinforce Btrieve's position as the file management
standard for IBM PC or AT software developers.

SoftCraft is committed to providing our customers with the compre-
hensive development tools they need. In the last 18 months alone we've
introduced database query and report writing modules for Btrieve
applications, as well as local area network and XENIX versions of Btrieve.
Our Btrieve environment continues to grow, keeping you in the forefront
as future trends emerge.

We're convinced our new "no more royalties" plan will make you—
and Btrieve— even more successful.

And that's a great way to start the new business year.

SoftCraft Inc.

P.O. Box 9802 #917

Austin, Texas 78766

(512) 346-8380 Telex 358 200

Suggested retail prices: Btrieve, $245; Btrieve/N (network version), $595;

Xtrieve, $195; Xtrieve/N, $395; Rtrieve, $85; Rtrieve/N, $175.

Requires PC-DOS, MS-DOS 1.X-3.X or XENIX.

Btrieve is a registered trademark and Xtrieve and Rtrieve

are trademarks of SoftCraft Inc.

Inquiry 295

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 185

K)l printer
letter-qualify
performance.

And we'll give you

a top-notch word

processing program.

StyleWriter™ is a unique device with a 64K data
buffer and multiple type styles and sizes that upgrades
your dot matrix printer to letter quality.

So versatile it even allows double
underlining, proportional spac-
ing, reverse characters, bold
face and much more.

And StyleWriter works with
any software program, any computer and any dot
matrix printer.

Order StyleWriter now
and receive MicroPro's
new EASY
absolutely free.

Now, word processing is easier than ever to use.
Because Easy has the best WordStar® features in a
new, simplified format. Easy includes a fully integrated
Spelling Corrector making it the perfect word processor
for executives and all first-time computer users.

Unconditional
money back guarantee

Call now to order StyleWriter for $249 and your free
software selection. If you're not completely satisfied, return
both undamaged within 30 days for a full refund. Major
bank cards and COD. accepted.

And ask about our unique speech input system,
Pronounce™

1-800-325-9206

Microphonics Technology Corporation
234 S.W. 43rd Street, Renton, WA 98057

Mfcrophonics

SNOBOL4

metic expression and produce a value (on the stack) go
something like this:

DEFINE( 'EV()T )
. DEFINE( ADD()' )
DEFINE( 'SUBQT' )

:(SEMAN_END)
EV EV = DUMMY'

PUSH($POP()) :(NRETURN)

ADD ADD = 'DUMMY'

PUSH( POP() + POP() ) :(NRETURN)
SUB SUB = 'DUMMY'

T = POP()

PUSH( POP() - T ) :(NRETURN)

SEMAN_END

The ellipses above are meant to be filled with similar
definitions for multiply (MUL), division (DIV), and nega-
tion (NEG). You can fill these in for yourself, if you like,
lb take an example, the statements

'3 + 4' POS(0) E RPOS(0)
OUTPUT = POP()

will output the value 7. Also,

ALPHA = 3

BETA = 4

ALPHA - (BETA - 3) } POS(0) E RPOS(0)

OUTPUT = POP()

will output the value 2.

The essential method of operation is that it is the re-
sponsibility of each component (E. TERM, FACTOR,
PRIMARY, INTEGER, and IDEN) to leave a value on the
stack. When a routine like ADD() is called, it POPs the
two values and PUSHes their sum. It then returns a
dummy name (to keep binary dot happy).

Of course, these semantic routines can be replaced by
routines that write out assembly or machine code, thereby
producing a compiler. Alternatively, you can invoke tree-
building calls so that the result of the scan is a parse tree.

Summary

To summarize at this point is like asking an astronaut to
summarize his flight experience while he's on the way up.
There are many aspects of the language that I have not
mentioned, and I have just begun to scratch the surface
of the application areas. SNOBOL4, having been pro-
nounced dead on a number of occasions, is alive and avail-
able on more machines than ever in its history.

The language will probably always have a cult following
among the religiously recursive and those interested in
ease of programming. ■

186 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 224

Unlock powerful s

with the power of speech.

srW/

"''"-■''' : -

WPENMYMAIlfi
"OPEN SALES DATA BASE'
"PRINT SALES BY I TORY" J
"GET STOCK Ql :S" I
% "CALL MICROPHONICS" |
"EDIT LETTER" I

No matter what software you use.
Pronounce will make you a power user.

You're just one phone call from the
most powerful PC tool available today—
the Pronounce™ speech input system
from Microphonics™

In plain English, or in any other
language, you can create spreadsheets,
perform a financial analysis, edit reports,
call up graphs, play "what its" and
print files.

No matter what PC software you use,
Pronounce will boost its usefulness and
help you work faster. Because Pronounce
replaces repetitous keystroke sequences
with simple voice commands, leaving
your hands free for other things.

A simple staternsnt like "revise the
two-year forecast" can equal up to 255"
keystrokes. That's like typing at the
speed of sound.

No other speech input system
compares with ^^i

Pronounce. And for un- rj~jS§|
limited flexibility, no other :i|§g
system lets you add or
change Voice-Macros™ ;S

anytime you please. Best
of all, Pronounce costs less \ 1
than half what the
competition is asking. * *J0*

What the experts are saying
about Pronounce.

"With the Pronounce software, you
don't have to be a programming guru...
you can make the system into almost
anything you want."
-PC Magazine, October 1, 1985

"Perhaps its greatest potential is in
allowing people untrained in computer
skills to use sophisticated software in
solving complex problems."
—Lotus Magazine, July 1985

Unconditional
money-back guarantee.

Order now and Microphonics will give
you one of the programs listed at right,
free. Pronounce comes with a
30-day unconditional money-
back guarantee. If you are not
100% satisfied, return

Pronounce and the free
gift undamaged within
30 days for a full
refund. Major charge
cards and CODs
accepted.

1-800-325-9206

Microphonics Technology Corporation, 234 S.W. 43rd
Street, Renton, WA 98057, Telephone (206) 251-9009.

Microphonics

Order Pronounce now at only $695
and Microphonics will give you one of
these major products. Absolutely free.
Microphonics SuperCalc3 '

and Sideways? FREE .
A super spreadsheet with graphics.
$395 retail value.

Or... Enable, FREE .
A fully integrated, five-function pro-
gram. $695 retail value.

Or. ■ . Microphonics
StvleWriter. FREE .
StyleWriter is a unique device with
64K buffer and an array of type styles
and sizes that upgrades your matrix
printer to letter quality. $199 retail value.
Or. . . Microphonics
ColoGraph; FREE .
Hercules™ look-alike color graphics
card. $495 retail value.

Or. . . Microphonics
MonoGraph; FREE .
Hercules look-alike monochrome
graphics card. $295 retail value.

Inquiry 225

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 187

■>!

Patent PND.

BLUm GLTOCT

FROM ALLIANCE RESEARCH CORPORATION

20120 Plummer Street

Chatsworth, CA 91311 • 1-818-993-1202

No More Fumbling with Screwdrivers! Just a twist of
the thumb wheel screw heads and the cable is
securely screwed into position.! No cable looks or
works quite like this. DATA SPEC® cable assemblies
not only visually enhance your computer equipment,
but providesuperior quality inside and out.

FEATURES:

• Gold Plated Pins

• Positive Strain Relief

. Full Shielding (Exceeds F.C.C. EMI/RFI
Emission Requirements)

• Large Convenient Thumbscrews (No
More Screwdrivers Needed!)

• Exclusive P.D.T. Underhood for
Maximum Integrity

• Lifetime Warranty

DATA SPEC® makes cable assemblies to fit any of
your interface needs: RS232, Parallel (Centronics),
Printers, Modems, Disk Drives, and monitors. For your
IBM, Apple, AT&T and other popular PC's. Ask for
DATA SPEC® cables at your nearest authorized
DATA SPEC® dealer.

PRINTER JACK 1

Apple He
Serial to
Parallel
Printer
Interface

The Printer Jack™ is a device that will enable you
to use the Apple lie, which is not equipped with a
parallel port, with any standard parallel printer. The
Printer Jack can also be used with other computers
with an optional cable.

The Printer Jack set, Model A1250 includes: a CPU
unit (the big box), a 9V power supply and a 5 pin to i
5 pin cable.

FROM ALLIANCE RESEARCH CORPORATION

20120 Plummer Street

Chatsworth, CA 91311 • 1-818-993-1202

Power Spikes can occur anywhere! Even in
RS232 lines! Stop power spikes with the NEW
RS232 Surge Protector from DATA SPEC®
The RS232 Surge Protector will eliminate power
spikes and surges generated by static discharges
from damaging computers and peripherals.
Comes with a Female DB25 on one end and a
DB Male on the other end with gold plated pins.
All 25 pins are wired through. Ask for the RS232
Surge Protector at your nearest authorized
DATA SPEC® dealer.

D3CMSI QDGCF

FROM ALLIANCE RESEARCH CORPORATION

20120 Plummer Street

Chatsworth, CA 91311 • 1-818-993-1202

ITJMail!lE5MMMaMBrM3J

--■;■■" -.

This miniature RS232 tester is designed to
monitor RS232 lines. This tester is very useful in
diagnosing RS232 communication problems.

There are 7 different colored LED indicator lights
to monitor the following functions: Receive Data
(RD), Clear To Send (CTS), Data Terminal Ready
(DTR), Request To Transmit Data (TD), Request
To Send Data (RTS), Data Set Ready (DSR), and
Carrier Detect (CD). Ask for the RS232 Mini Tester
at your nearest authorized DATA SPEC® dealer.

LIlIITTlI] (SL^Lia"

FROM ALLIANCE RESEARCH CORPORATION

20120 Plummer Street

Chatsworth, CA 91311 • 1-818-993-1202

NO LOST DATA!

Even Computer
Owners Need Beepers

Have you ever lost data from a modem because
you forgot to turn a switch? Now you can be
"beeped" and visually alerted with the Incoming
Data Alert from DATAS SPEC®.
This device will sound an audible "beep" (for
about 15 seconds) and light a red L.E.D. (which
stays lit until reset) whenever data is being
transmitted through an RS232 line. The Incoming
Data Alert monitors pin 3 and can used betweens
modems and computers and terminals.

□OUCH QLTGCr m

FROM ALLIANCE RESEARCH CORPORATION

20120 Plummer Street

Chatsworth, CA 91311 • 1-818-993-1202

zUSE INQUIRY NUMBERS BELOW =

=USE INQUIRY NUMBER S BELOW=

=USE INQUIRY NUMBERS BELOWz

25 PIN DATA SWITCH

*^

All RS232 25 pin switch boxes are available in
these configurations: AB-25.ABC-25 and ABX-25
(Cross Matrix, allows the use of 2 computers and
2 peripherals). Can be switched with IBM PC
paralell port, compatibles too!
It's about time you benefit from high performance at
affordable prices? Ask for the 25 Pin Data Switches
at your nearest authorized DATA SPEC® dealer.

ocra oltoct

FROM ALLIANCE RESEARCH CORPORATION

20120 Plummer Street

Chatsworth, CA 91311 • 1-818-993-1202

36 PIN PARALLEL
DATA SWITCH

(CENTRONICS TYPE)

These switch boxes also have gold plated pins and
have all 36 pins switched. The 36 pin boxes are
available in these configurations: AB-36 and
ABC-36.

Quality features, outstanding durability and
affordable prices! Ask for the 36 Pin Data Switches
at your nearest authorized DATA SPEC® dealer.

ajFLTLja GLTGCT

FROM ALLIANCE RESEARCH CORPORATION

20120 Plummer Street

Chatsworth, CA 91311 • 1-818-993-1202

LED. 25 P IN DATA

SWITCH SOX

Get all the outstanding features of DATA SPEC'S
RS232 25 Pin Data Switch Boxes and more with
the ABL-25LE. This luxury edition data switch
box features 7 L.E.D. indicators (TD, RD, RTS,
CTS, DSR, DTR & CD) and gold plated pins.

Ask for the 25 Pin L.E.D. Data Switch Box at your
nearest authorized DATA SPEC® dealer.

[IMJilOtKiCr

FROM ALLIANCE RESEARCH CORPORATION

20120 Plummer Street

Chatsworth, CA91311 • 1-818-993-1202

IN JAPAN CALL: DATA SPEC JAPAN LTD., NO. 3-17-5, MINAMI OTSUKA, 7DSHIMA-KU, TOKYO 170. JAPAN TEL (03) 985-9425. TELEX 2723374

i Inquiry 114 for End-Users. Inquiry 115 for DEALERS ONLY.

: © Copyright 1965 Alliance Research Corporation ■

TEXT PROCESSING

INTERPRETATION

OF NATURAL

LANGUAGE

by Jordan Pollack and David L Waltz

A potential application of parallelism

This article was adapted from "Parallel In-
terpretation of Natural language!' presented
to the International Conference on Fifth
Generation Computer Systems, November
1984.

THE INTERPRETATION of natural lan-
guage requires the cooperative appli-
cation of both language-specific
knowledge about word use, word
order, and phrase structure and real-
world knowledge about typical situa-
tions, events, roles, contexts, and so
on. While these areas of knowledge
seem distinct, it isn't easy to write a
program for natural-language pro-
cessing that decomposes language
into its parts; i.e., you cannot construct
a psychologically realistic natural-
language processor by merely con-
joining various knowledge-specific
processing modules serially or hier-
archically.

We offer instead a model based on
the integration of independent syntac-
tic, semantic, and contextual knowl-
edge sources via spreading activation
and lateral inhibition links. Figure 1
shows part of the network that is ac-
tivated with the sentence

John shot some bucks.

(1)

Links with arrows are activating, while
those with circles are inhibiting.
Mutual inhibition links between two
nodes allow only one of the nodes to
remain active for any duration. (How-
ever, both nodes may be simulta-
neously inactive.) Mutual inhibition
links are generally placed between
nodes that represent mutually incom-
patible interpretations, while mutual
activation links join compatible ones.
If the context in which this sentence
occurs has included a reference to
"gambling." only the shaded nodes of
figure la remain active after relaxation
of the network. But if "hunting" has
been primed, only the shaded nodes
shown in figure lb will remain active.
Notice that the "decision" made by
the system integrates syntactic,
semantic, and contextual knowledge:
The fact that "some bucks" is a legal
noun phrase is a factor in killing the
readings of "bucks" as a verb; the fact
that "hunting" is associated with both
the "fire" meaning of "shot" and the
"deer" meaning of "bucks" leads to
the activation of the coalition of

nodes shown in figure lb; and so on.
At the same time, the knowledge base
in our model is easy to add to or
modify. In this model of processing,
decisions are spread out over time,
allowing various knowledge sources
to be brought to bear on the elements
of the interpretation process. This is
a radical departure from cognitive
models based on the convenient deci-
sion procedures provided by conven-
tional programming languages.

Our program operates by dynami-
cally constructing a graph with
weighted nodes and links from a
sentence while running an iterative
operation that recomputes each
node's activation level (or weight)
based on a function of its current
value and the inner product of its links

(continued)

Jordan Pollack is currently writing his doc-
toral thesis in computer science at the Univer-
sity of Illinois. He can be reached through the
Coordinated Science Laboratory, 1 101 West
Springfield, Urbana. IL 61801. David L.
Waltz is a professor with the computer science
department of Brandeis University and a
senior scientist at Thinking Machines Corp.,
245 First St., Cambridge, MA 02142.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 189

NATURAL LANGUAGE

and the activation levels of its
neighbors. For these examples, we are
primarily interested in the behavior of
the network and not in the program
that dynamically constructs the net-
work. The syntactic portions of the
networks in this paper were con-
structed by a parser modeled after
Kay (see reference 1), while the
semantic and contextual portions are
permanently resident in memory. Ini-
tially all nodes are given zero weight,
except for the nodes used to model
context (e.g., "hunting" and "gam-
bling 1 '). Each activation link has a
weight of .2 and each inhibition link
has a weight of -.45. The iterative
operation uses a proportional function
to compute new weighting for nodes,
similar to the one used by McClelland
and Rumelhart in their interactive ac-
tivation model (reference 2).
The net effect of the program is that,

over several iterations, a coalition of
well-connected nodes will dominate,
while the less fortunate nodes (those
that are negatively connected to win-
ners) will be suppressed. We exploit
this behavior several ways in our sys-
tem. By putting inhibitory links be-
tween nodes that represent well-
formed phrases with shared consti-
tuents (which are thus mutually ex-
clusive), we ensure that only one will
survive. Similarly, there are inhibitory
links between nodes representing dif-
ferent lexical categories (i.e., noun or
verb) for the same word; between
concept nodes representing different
senses of the same word (i.e., sub-
marine as a boat or as a sandwich);
and between nodes representing con-
flicting case role interpretations. There
are activation links between phrases
and their constituents, words and
their different meanings, roles and

their fillers, and corresponding syntac-
tic and semantic interpretations.

Semantic Garden Paths

Because our system operates in time,
we are able to model effects that de-
pend on context and effects that de-
pend on the arrival times of words.
Consider the network shown in figure
2, which shows three snapshots taken
during the processing of the sentence
(due to Charniak, reference 3):

The astronomer married a star. (2)

Figure 2 includes three possible
meanings for "star," namely (I) the fea-
tured player in dramatic acting, (2) a
celestial body, or (3) a pentagram. We
presume that "astronomer" primes
STAR by the path of strong links:
astronomer - ASTRONOMER -
ASTRONOMY - CELESTIAL-BODY,
but that MOVIE-STAR would be

(a)

C GAMBLE

Figure 1: IWo interpretations of "]ohn shot some bucks": (a) shows the result in the context of gambling (i.e., \ohn wasted some
money), while (b) shows the result in the context of hunting (i.e.. )ohn fired a gun at some deer). Both examples required about 25

190 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

NATURAL LANGUAGE

primed very little, if at all, because any
activation of HUMAN via "astrono-
mer" and "married" is spread fairly
evenly among a vast number of other
concepts (PHYSICIAN, PROFESSOR,
etc.). When the word "star" is en-
countered, the meaning CELESTIAL-
BODY is initially highly preferred, but
eventually, since CELESTIAL-BODY is
inanimate, whereas the object of
MARRY should be human and ani-
mate, the, MOVIE-STAR meaning of
"star" wins out.

In figure 2d we show the activation
levels for CELESTIALrBODY and
MOVIE-STAR as functions of time.
One can see that the activation of
CELESTIALBODY is initially very high
and that only later does MOVIE-STAR
catch up to and eventually dominate
it. We argue that, if activation level is
taken as a prime determinant of the
contents of consciousness, then this

model captures a common experi-
ence of people when hearing this
sentence. This phenomenon is often
reported as being humorous and
could be considered a kind of
"semantic garden path." It should be
emphasized that this behavior falls
out of this model and is not the result
of juggling the weights until it works.
In fact, the examples shown in this
paper work in an essentially similar
way over a broad range of link weight-
ings.

Text and Context

Earlier, in figure I, we used "context-
setting" nodes such as "hunting" and
"gambling" to prime particular word
and phrase senses in order to force
appropriate interpretations of a noun
phrase. There are, however, major
problems that preclude the use of
such context-setting nodes as a solu-

tion to the problem of context-
directed interpretation of language. A
particular context-setting word— e.g.,
"hunting —may never have been ex-
plicitly mentioned earlier in the text
or discourse but may nonetheless be
easily inferred by a reader or hearer.
For example, preceding sentence I
with

John spent his weekend in the
woods. (3)

should suffice to induce the "hunting"
context. Mention of such words or
items as "outdoors." "hike." "campfire."
"duck blind," "marksman," etc., ought
to also prime a hearer appropriately,
even though some of these words
(e.g., "outdoors" and "hike") are more
closely related to many other con-
cepts than to "hunting." We are thus
apparently faced with either (a) the

[continued]

(b)

HUNT

GAMBLE

cycles to settle. \n each case, only a slight initial advantage was given to HUNT or GAMBLE. The numbered nodes control arrival
times of the words. The circles at the ends of connecting lines between nodes indicate inhibition and the arrows indicate activation.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 191

(a)

(b)

THE

ASTRONOMER

MARRIED

STAR

SCHOLAR

"GEOM-FIG

£>

study y

MARRY

§ 9

KTH-ft ©

ASTRONOMER

MARRIED

(^hT) (^ASTRONOMER^)

SCHOLAR

STAR

<^CELES-BODY^

STUDY 0-

C MARRY

192 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

(c)

(d)

SCHOLAR

STUDY 3

O MARRY

i.U

/T.

>^V

MOVIE-STAR

75

j

/ \

/
/
/
/

.5

/
/

\CELES-BODY

25

1 /

J . j

D 17

34

51

68

85

Figure 2: Tfe cognitive "doubletake" when processing "The astronomer married a star": (a) shows CELESTIALrBODY dominant
at cycle 27; (b) shows a balance of power at cycle 42; (c) shows MOVIE-STAR finally winning the battle by cycle 85; and (d)
shows a plot of their activation values over time.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 193

NATURAL LANGUAGE

need to infer the special context-
setting concept "hunting," given any
of the words or items above, or (b) the
need to provide connections between
each of the words or items and all the
various word senses they prime.
There is, however, a better alternative.
We propose that each concept
should not merely be represented as
a unitary node but should in addition
be associated with a set of "micro-
features." or generalized associations.
We suggest that microfeatures should
be chosen on the basis of first prin-
ciples to correspond to the major
distinctions humans make about
situations in the world, that is, distinc-
tions we must make to survive and
thrive. For example, some important
microfeatures correspond to distinc-
tions such as threatening/safe,
animate/inanimate, edible/inedible, in-
doors/outdoors, good outcome/
neutral outcome/bad outcome, mov-
ing/still, intentional/unintentional, or
characteristic lengths of events (e.g.,
whether events require milliseconds,
hours, or years). Microfeatures serve
both to define the concepts, at least
partially, and to associate the concept
with others that share its microfea-
tures. We propose a large set of
microfeatures (on the order of
thousands), each of which is potential-
ly connected to every concept node
in the system (potentially on the order
of hundreds of thousands). Each con-
cept is in fact connected to only some
subset of the total set, via either bi-
directional activation or bidirectional
inhibition links. Closely related con-
cepts have many microfeatures in
common. As in Hinton's model (see
reference 4), hierarchies arise natural-
ly, based on subsets of shared micro-
features, rather than being the fun-
damental basis for organizing con-
cepts in a semantic network, as in
most artificial intelligence models.

Microfeatures as a Priming
Context

Let's see how microfeatures could
help solve the problems presented by
the example in figure I. Figure 3
shows a partial set of microfeatures,
corresponding to temporal-event

length or location (setting). A small set
of concepts relevant to our example
is listed across the top. Solid circles
denote strong connection of concepts
to microfeatures, open circles, a weak
connection, and crosses, a negative
connection. A simple scoring scheme
allows "weekend" and "outdoors" to
appropriately prime concepts related
to "fire at" and "deer" relative to
"waste money" and "dollar," as well
as the ability of "casino" or "video
game" to induce an opposite priming
effect as shown in figure 3b. It is in-
teresting to compare these effects
with the effects of priming with "hunt-
ing" or "gambling" directly. No relax-
ation was used, though it obviously
could be. (A concept could activate
microfeatures, priming other con-
cepts, and then the primed concepts
could change the activation of the
microfeatures, in turn activating new
concepts and eventually settling
down. We have tried hard to be fair
in constructing figure 3a, for example,
priming with "outdoor" rather than
"woods," and including links between
"casino" and "desert" to acknowledge
Las Vegas. Time periods characterize
event lengths. Locations are to be
taken as settings or surroundings, not
objects. All links are clearly culturally
dependent though, we think, roughly
in accord with current middle-class
American language usage.) We have
been experimenting with a number of
possible weighting and propagation
schemes and have built up a much
larger matrix than the one shown in
figure 3.

Related Work

There are many research projects that
are very much in the same spirit as
ours. Beginning in the early 1970s,
Schank argued that semantics, not
syntax, should have the central role
in both theories and programs for
natural-language processing; Ries-
beck's parser for MARGIE (reference
5) has a clear relationship to the
model proposed here. Steven Small
was another worker in AI to question
the traditional serial integration of lan-
guage processing (reference 6). He
suggested that rather than having

separate modules for syntax and
semantics, each word was an expert
in interpreting its own meaning and
role in context. Following on that
work, Gary Cottrell is recasting word-
sense selection into a connectionist
framework (reference 7), and his work
is very closely related to our own.
Mark Jones is also working on pars-
ing with spreading activation, but of
the digital kind (reference 8).

Other work has set integrated pars-
ing into the production-system frame-
work. BORIS uses a lexically-based
demon-driven production system to
read stories and answer questions
about them (reference 9). The
READER system (reference 10) is a
multilevel parallel production system
that models chronometric data, that
is, data on how long humans visual-
ly fixate on each word while read-
ing.

Another interesting approach to lan-
guage integration is taken by Hendler
and Phillips (reference II), who are
using a message-passing ACTOR sys-
tem (reference 12) to model the inter-
actions between syntax, semantics,
and pragmatics. Other work that has
influenced our research includes the
spreading activation work by Ortony
and Radin (reference 13), based on a
network of free associations to
English words.

Architectural
Considerations

Our work, and, in general, other work
in connectionist modeling (references
14 and 2) is particularly well suited for
implementation on parallel com-
puters. Unlike cognitive models based
on parallel production systems such
as HEARSAY II (reference 15) or
READER (reference 10), in which con-
current access to the "blackboard" is
a bottleneck permitting only small
speedups, connectionist models per-
mit a speedup proportional to the
number of processors.

There are both advantages and dis-
advantages of the connectionist
models with respect to the commu-
nications costs in a parallel system.
One disadvantage is that since a cycle

[continued)

194 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

NATURAL LANGUAGE

CONCEPTS

weekend outdoors casino video fire waste deer dollor hunting gambling

games at money

second

minute

hour

day

week

month

year

decade

inside

house

store

office
£ school
■=> factory
< casino

UJ

a. bar

o

tr restaurant

o

= theater

outside

racetrack

city street

city park

ru r al

forest

lake

desert

mou ntain

seashore

canyon

(

/ *

9 \

p-

fc A

¥ *

w

\

•

* \

«* s

J V,

j '

k.

*

r ' ^

* 1

\ (

)

■• \

* \

)

\

M 7

5 *

if. *.

v- *

J \

1 h /\ t\

i +

v ' 1

,\ /v

/ %

*

9

/

> /\

/ *

j +

/ *

• {

}

*

* %

■*■ *

C 5

(a)
(b)

+ CONCEPT AND MICROFEATURE CHARACTERISTICALLY A SS CI AT E D j W E 1 G H T 1 N G = 1

■& MILD ASSOCIATION ; WEIGHTING= .5

+ COULD BE ASSOCIATED. BUT CHARACTERISTICALLY U N R E L AT E D '. W E 1 G H T 1 N G =

^L NEGATIVELY ASSOCIATED; CONCEPT AND MICROFEATURE TEND TO BE ACTUALLY
EXCLUSIVE; WEIGHTING =-.5

PRIMED CONCEPTS
PRIMING (fraction of maximum possible score)
CONCEPTS pjreat Waste Deer DoNar

Weekend .41 .55 .46
Outdoors .41 ,44 .08
Casino .05 .59 .42
Video Games .18 .36 .19
Weekend &
Outdoors .41 .07 .25 .12

Figure 3: l!!ustrfltfow o/ tfte use of Time and Place microfeatures to provide contextual priming: (a) shows a microfeaturesl
concepts matrix: (b) shows the instantaneous priming effects on concepts after undergoing a single priming cycle. All concept values
began at 0.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 195

NATURAL LANGUAGE

An Activation Network
Erector Set

At the laboratories where this kind
of research is taking place,
people have built sophisticated tools
for network construction, simulation,
and analysis. Most of them are ma-
chine-specific, dependent on the power-
ful graphics environment provided by
personal LISP workstations. I've con-
structed a LISP accompaniment to the
article, a small, nongraphic version of
such a tool in the public-domain lan-
guage XLISP 1.4. which will run on IBM
PCs and compatibles. [Editor's note: The
author has also provided a version of this pro-
gram that can run under XLISP 1.2. It is
available for downloading from BYTEnet
Listings. (617) 861-9764. See also page 350
for information on how to obtain listings on
disk] Just as you can't build a space
shuttle with a hardware erector set, you
can't build a mind with this "network
erector set," but you can have some
fun.

It is actually a full-featured network
tool, based on a program I wrote
several years ago, before I had access

by Jordan Pollack

to a LISP machine. With this tool, you
can construct, inspect, and modify ac-
tivation networks as well as simulate,
animate, and plot their behavior.

Using the Program

The top-level program, called EDITNET,
uses a simple nested menu system.
Each item in a menu has a unique first
character, which is all you need to type
to invoke the item. Since on most sys-
tems the input is buffered, once you
become familiar with the sequences of
selections needed to evoke com-
mands, you can type ahead.

The menu is tree-structured and a
whole command is a path through the
tree (see table A). For example, when
you call EDITNET, the top-level menu
is displayed: (QUIT FILE MODIFY EX-
ECUTE SHOW)? > . To modify the (ini-
tially empty) network, you type M,
which brings up the modify menu:
(ADD LINK SET DELETE UN-
LI NK)?>. To add a node, you type A,
and you then are prompted for the

T^ble A: The tree structure of the EDITNET program.

((QUIT)

(FILE

(CLEAR)

erases all nodes and links

(LOAD filename)

; direct input from "filename.net"

(SAVE filename)

; makes a command file "filename.net"

(PLOT numberofnodes nodel . . . noden numberofcycles filename))

; makes a file

"filename.plt"

(MODIFY

(ADD node)

; create new node

(LINK

(ACT fromnode

tonode) ; create activation link

(INH fromnode

tonode)) ; create inhibition link

(SET node initialvalue) ; sets a nodes initial value

(DELETE node)

; delete a node

(UNLINK fromnode tonode)) ; remove a link

(EXECUTE

(RESET) ;

sets each node to initial value

(CYCLE numberofcycles)) ; animate the network

(SHOW node)

name of a node: node?>, to which
you might type FOO. Similarly, to add
BAR you would type M A BAR. To
create an activation link between FOO
and BAR, type MLA FOO BAR and
to give FOO some initial energy, type
M S FOO 50. Finally, to watch FOO ac-
tivate BAR, type E C 10.

Some interesting features of the pro-
gram are its abilities to save the net-
works you construct in command files
(F S filename) and read them back in
later, to display the connections be-
tween one node and the rest of the net-
work (S node), and to plot activation-
level versus time graphs in a format that
can be printed on any printer.

Implementation Notes

To demonstrate the object-oriented
facility of XLISP, I used two kinds of ob-
jects in the program and defined three
macros for dealing with them to im-
prove XLISP's readability. (DEFCLASS
newclass superclass (ivars. . .^de-
fines a new class of objects,
(DEFMETHOD class selector (args)
exprs . . . ) defines a new method for a
class, and ( = > obj selector args . . . )
sends a message to an object.

As always, several compromises had
to be made for portability. First, since
XLISP has no pointing device such as
a light pen or mouse, nodes have to
be uniquely named in order to be
selected. Second, lack of graphics sub-
routine calls means that animation is
accomplished by terminal cursor con-
trol. There are three functions, GOTO,
CLS, and ERASETOEOL that are writ-
ten for the ANSI standard, available as
an option for PCs; they may have to be
rewritten for different systems. Third,
since XLISP has no real numbers,
scaled fractions are used for com-
puting activation levels, and these
cause some round-off error as nodes
approach 0. To keep it simple, I used
a scaling of 100, so a node or link value
of 0,5 is represented as 50.

196 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Betcha our compiler can
beat up your compiler.

Or your money back

If you program in BASIC,
Pascal, Fortran or C,
you're using yesterday's

technology. We know this state-
ment will start a brawl, but it's true.
So, before you start a fight you can't
win, take a closer look at the Modula-2
language and the Modula-2 Software
Development System (M2SDS) from
Interface Technologies. Just compare
the features and performance of
M2SDS to your system. You'll find a
new language and a programming
environment that's more flexible,
much faster and works on any IBM®
PC or 100% compatible with 256 K
memory or more.

M2SDS

COMPILE SPEED (MIN.SEC)
30LINES
300UNES

0:15.58
0:25.48

EXECUTION SPEED (M/N.SEC)
SIEVE
FIBONACCI
30X30 MATRIX (8087)
FP OPERATIONS
FP OPERATIONS (8087)

0:13.92
0:53.49
0108.84
0:27.56
0:01.97

SYNTAX CHECKING EDITOR

YES

MULTIPLE WINDOW EDITING

YES

EDITOR FILESIZE LIMIT

MEMORY SIZE

COMPILE ERROR CALLS EDITOR

YES

LINKER

YES

PRODUCES. EXE FILES

YES

EXECUTABLE CODE SIZE LIMIT

DISKSPACE

DOS ACCESS FROM EDITOR

YES

DOS ACCESS FROM PROGRAMS

YES

8087 SUPPORT STANDARD

YES

COPY-PROTECTED DISK

NO

| COST WITH 8087 SUPPORT

$50.88l$80.88

Source: Software Resources, Inc.

Sieve program from BYTE, January 1983.

Fibonacci program from Dr. Dobb's Journal,

February 1985.

Matrix program from BYTE, October, 1982.

FP Operations program from BYTE, May 1985.

M2SDS with or without 8087 uses 8-byte accuracy.

Programs compiled with all checking options on.

All tests conducted on a standard IBM-PC 7 XT with

512K of memory and an 8087 math coprocessor.

Trade In and Trade Up. Just

to prove that we're not all brag . . .
we'll send you M2SDS for just $50.88
if you mail us your present compiler
or interpreter diskette.* That's $30.00
off the regular price. If within 30
days you're not programming faster
than ever, just return the diskette and
we'll send you your money back. So
you've got a no risk way to experi-
ence the programming efficiency of
the future.

Heavyweight Champion

SDS-XP. If you're ready to move
into light-speed, you need SDS-XP.
It has everything M2SDS has with a
little "punch" added. Like Extended
Libraries, M2MAKE and a Foreign
Object Module Importer. SDS-XP
offers buyers a stout discount when
compared with the cost of buying
M2SDS and the additional compo-
nents as add-ons. For a limited time
only, SDS-XP is available for $99.00
with compiler trade-in. That's $150.00
off the advertised price of $249.00.

* Original or back-up diskette may b e sent for trade-
in Diskette will be destroyed immediately upon
receipt so that your current compiler license agree-
ment is not violated.

IBM is a registered trademark of International
Business Machines Corporation.

Calling All Compilers. So now

that you're wise to the limitations of
your system, why not trade it in. You'll
soon see that it was smarter to switch
than fight. And a pretty safe bet.

m

INTERFACE
TECHNOLOGIES

3 336 Richmond Ave., Suite 200
Houston, Tx 77098

1-800-922-9049

(In Texas, call 713/523-8422) Telex: 322127
Modula-2 Bulletin Board: 713/523-7255

Here's my diskette. Rush me:

□ M2SDS for $50.88 each, plus $7 shipping
and handling.

D SDS-XP for $99.00 each, plus $7 shipping
and handling.

Or, send me:

□ M2SDS for $80.88 each, plus $7 shipping
and handling.

□ SDS-XP for $249.00 each, plus $7 ship-
ping and handling.

□ My check is enclosed.
□. Apply charges to credit card indicated
below:

VISA/MasterCard/American Express
(circle one).

Credit Card #

Expiration Date .
Signature

Name_

(please print)

Shipping Address .

City.

State/Zip

Day Phone

Texas residents add 6. 125% Sales Tax.
International orders add $30 for shipping/ handling.
If paying by check, check or draft must be in
US. dollars drawn on a US. bank.

INTERFACE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
3336 Richmond, Suite 200, Houston, Texas 77098

I I

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 197

NATURAL LANGUAGE

consists of a whole barrage of mes-
sages crossing the network, message-
passing architectures with indeter-
minate delays are problematic. One
advantage is that since each message
is a quantitative value that is ultimate-
ly to be summed, we can distribute
the addition through the network. We
have designed two such communica-
tion networks for modeling activation
networks in parallel using the concept
of message-merging processors. In
the first design (reference 16), each ac-
tivation node corresponds to an
NMOS (negative-channel metal-oxide
semiconductor) cell, which contains
memory for its activation level, an
ALU (arithmetic logic unit), and
special-purpose sorting shift-registers
for its links. The cells are laid out in
the simplest geometry— a linear
array— and processing takes place in
three stages: First, the activation and
inhibition links, which are composed
of a relative destination and magni-
tude, are multiplied by the current ac-
tivation level and loaded into shift reg-
isters. Second, the full barrage of mes-
sages is forwarded through the net-
work in a constant number of very
small shifting cycles. The shift registers
both keep the messages sorted to
send out the longest one first and
combine messages with the same
destination. The result is that the
length of the longest message de-
creases by I every shift cycle, leading
to a constant time (shift time *
length(longest message)). And third,
the activation levels are recomputed.
The second design (reference 17)
generalized this process to a two-
dimensional topology.

Conclusion

We have not actually built the hard-
ware but continue to refine the
natural-language model, keeping the
constraints of VLSI (very-large-scale
integration) implementation in mind.
We have been developing our pro-
grams in LISP but plan to implement
them on the Connection Machine (ref-
erence 18) when it is available.

Using spreading activation and
lateral inhibition enables a good
framework for embedding compre-

hension phenomena that cannot even
be approached with binary serial
models. We have explored ties to
psychological and linguistic results
and theories; these are reported in
reference 19. There, we show that
structural preferences such as
"minimal attachment" (reference 20)
can be understood as side effects of,
rather than as strategies for, a syntac-
tic processor; current hypotheses
about lexical disambiguation in con-
text (references 21 and 22) can nice-
ly fit into a model with lateral inhibi-
tion; it could not be accounted for by
activation alone. Garden paths at dif-
ferent levels of processing can be ex-
plained by the breakdown of a com-
mon approximate consistent labeling
algorithm— lateral inhibition. ■

This work has been supported by the Office
of Naval Research under contract
N00014-75-C-0612 and is currently sup-
ported by an IBM Graduate Fellowship.

REFERENCES

1. Kay, M. "The MIND System." In Natural
language Processing, R. Rustin, ed. New York:
Algorithmics Press, 1973.

2. McClelland, J. L„ and D. E. Rumelhart.
"An Interactive Activation Model of the Ef-
fect of Context in Perception." TR91.
Center for Human Information Processing,
UCSD, 1980.

3. Charniak, E. "Passing Markers: A Theory
of Contextual Influence in Language Com-
prehension." Cognitive Science, vol. 7, no. 3,
page 171. 1983.

4. Hinton, G. E. "Implementing Semantic
Networks in Parallel Hardware." In Parallel
Models of Associative Memory. G. E. Hinton
and I. A. Anderson, eds. Hillsdale. NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1981.

5. Schank, R.C., N. Goldman. C Rieger.
and C Riesbeck. "MARGIE: Memory,
Analysis. Response Generation and In-
ference in English." Proceedings of the IJCAI,
Stanford University, page 2 55. 1973.

6. Small, S. "Word Expert Parsing: A
Theory of Distributed Word-Based Natural
Language Understanding." TR-954. Depart-
ment of Computer Science. University of
Maryland. 1980.

7. Cottrell, G. W, and S. L. Small. "A Con-
nectionist Scheme for Modelling Word
Sense Disambiguation." Cognition and Brain
Theory, vol. 6. no. I, page 89, 1983.

8. Jones, M. A. "Activation Based Parsing."
Proceedings of the IJCAI. Karlsruhe, West Ger-

many, page 678. 1983.

9. Dyer, M. "In-Depth Understanding: A
Computer Model of Integrated Processing
for Narrative Comprehension." Yale Com-
puter Science Research Report 219, May
1982.

10. Thibadeau. R.. M. A. just, and PA.
Carpenter. "A Model of the Time Course
and Content of Reading." Cognitive Science,
vol. 6, no. 2. page 157. 1982.

1 1 . Hendler. J., and B. Phillips. "A Flexible
Control Structure for the Conceptual
Analysis of Natural Language Using
Message Passing." TR-08-81-03, Dallas:
Texas Instruments, 1981.

12. Hewitt. C "Viewing Control Structures
as Patterns of Passing Messages." AI
Memo 410. MIT Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory, 1976.

13. Ortony. A., and D. Radin. "SAPIENS:
Spreading Activation Processor for Infor-
mation Encoded in Network Structures."
TR296. Center for the Study of Reading,
Univ. of Illinois. Urbana. October 1983.

14. Feldman I. A., and D H. Ballard. "Con-
nectionist Models and Their Properties."
Cognitive Science, vol. 6, no. 3. page 205.
1982.

15. Fennel. R. D.. and V. R. Lesser.
"Parallelism in AI Problem-solving: A Case
Study of HEARSAY II." IEEE Transactions on
Computers, February 1977, page 98.

16. Pollack. J. B. "An Activation/Inhibition
Network Cell." Working Paper 31, Ad-
vanced Automation Research Group, Co-
ordinated Science Laboratory. Urbana. IL.
1982.

17. Debrunner. C. "A r Iwo-Dimensional Ac-
tivation Cell." Working Paper 41, Advanced
Automation Research Group, Coordinated
Science Laboratory, Urbana, IL, 1983.

18. Hillis. W D. "The Connection Machine
(Computer Architecture for the New
Wave)." AI Memo 646, MIT Artificial Intel-
ligence Laboratory. 1981.

19. Waltz. D. L., and J. B. Pollack. "Massive-
ly Parallel Parsing: A Strongly Interactive
Model of Natural Language Interpreta-
tion." Cognitive Science, vol. 9, no. I, page
51. 1985.

20. Frazier, L. "On Comprehending
Sentences: Syntactic Parsing Strategies."
Indiana University Linguistics Club. 1979.

21. Swinney, D. A. "Lexical Access During
Sentence Comprehension: (Reconsidera-
tion of Context Effects." journal of Verbal
Learning and Verbal Behavior 18, page 645.
1979.

22. Seidenberg. M. S.. M. K. T^nenhaus.
and I. M. Leiman. "The Time Course of
Lexical Ambiguity Resolution in Context."
TRI64. Center for the Study of Reading.
Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, March 1980.

198 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

The Source,Is IMi-BDweied.

In today's fast-paced business climate, it
takes more than brains and drive to stay ahead
of the pack.

Which is why so many people are turning
to The Source.

The Source is the 24-hour online informa-
tion and communication service you can access
from any home or office PC. In a matter of
seconds, it can update you on vital events of
the day— both in and outside the business world.

With The Source, you'll be alerted to trends
in the making. Kept posted on your competition.
Given real-time stock quotes and
performance reviews on thousands of
publicly-held companies. And pro-
vided with the kind of edge that
separates the leaders from
the also-ran's.

The Source will help
you speed communication to g i ^y ggg^
branch offices, clients, and

suppliers through electronic mail. And let
you use computer conferencing to exchange
ideas and manage key projects long distance.

But for all its high-powered advantages,
The Source is also easy and economical to use.
There's even a free tutorial to help you learn
the ropes in record time.

To sign up today, call 1-800-336-3366. For
more information, mail this coupon, or visit your
nearest computer dealer.

And see how The Source can keep you on
the fast track, too.

anypers«Hla3mpu&

The Source is a service mark of Source Telecomputing
Corporation, a subsidiary of The Reader's Digest Association,
Inc. *■ 1985 Source Telecomputing Corporation.

INFORMATION NfHWORK

SM

The most powerful resource any personal computer can have.
Please send more information about The Source.
Name

782A3:

Address

City, State

Zip

Mail to: Source Telecomputing Corporation,
P.O. Box 1305, McLean, VA 22102. In Virginia,
or outside the U.S. call (703) 821-6666.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 199

NEW RELEASE

Ecosoft's Eco-C88 Rel. 3.0 C Compiler

$5995

Release 3.0 has new features at an unbelievably low price. ECO-C88 now has:

■ Prototyping (the new type-checking enhancement)

■ enum and void data types

■ structure passing and assignment

■ All operators and data types (except bit fields)

■ A standard library with more than 200 functions (many of which are System V
compatible for greater code portability)

■ cc and mini-make that all but automates the compile process

■ 8087 support (we sense the 8087 at runtime - no dual libraries)

■ ASM or OBJ output for use with MSDOS linker

■ Tiered error messages - enable-disable lint-like error checking

■ Fast compiles and executing code

■ Expanded user's manual

■ Enhanced CED program editor (limited time offer)

We also offer the following support products for Eco-C88.

CED Program Editor $0095

CED now supports on-line function help. ^* J

If you've forgotten how to use a standard library function, just type
in the name of the function and CED gives you a brief summary,
including function arguments. CED is a full screen editor with
auto-flagging of sourcecode errors, multiple windows, macros, and
is fully configurable to suit your needs. You can edit, compile, link,
and execute DOS commands from within the editor. Perfect for use
with Eco-C88. For IBM PC, AT and look alikes.

$20

C Source for Standard

Contains all of the source code for the library
functions that are distributed with Eco-C88, ex-
cluding the transcendentals and functions written
in assembler.

Developer's Library

Contains the source code for all library functions,
including the transcendentals and those written in
assembler. Perfect for the developer that wish to
write their own custom functions or learn how
we implemented the Eco-C88 library.

ISAM Library

Contains the code from the C Programmer's
Library in relocatable format (i.e., .OBJ) includ-
ing the delete code for the ISAM file handler.

Library $1A

ie library A \J

C Programming Guide ;

After reading the 1st edition,
Jerry Pournelle (BYTE Magazine) said: "I recom-
mend this book . . . Read it before trying to tackle
Kernighan and Ritchie." The second editon ex-
pands this best seller and walks you through the C
language in an easy-to-understand manner. Many
of the error messages include references to this
book making it a perfect companion to Eco-C88
for those just starting out with C.

( s 20 if not

with order)

$25

( s 50 if not
with order)

$ 15

( s 30 if not
with order)

$17

C Self -Study Guide

(Purdum, Que Corp.). Designed
for those learning C on their own. The book is filled
with questions-answers designed to illustrate many
of the tips, traps, and techniques of the C language.
Although written to complement the Guide, it may
be used with any introductory text on C.

$20

C Programmer's
Library

(Purdum, Leslie, Stegemoller. Que Corp.). This
best seller is an intermediate text designed to teach
you how to write library functions in a generalized
fashion. The book covers many advanced C topics
and contains many useful additions to your library
including a complete ISAM file handler.

Eco-C88 C compiler requires an IBM PC, XT, or
AT (or compatible) with 256K of memory, 2
disk drives and MSDOS 2.1 or later. Call today:

1-800-952-0472

or

1-317-255-6476

(for orders)

(tech. info.)

ECOBOFTfllMC,

Ecosoft, Inc.

6413 N. College Ave. • Indianapolis, IN 46220

TRADEMARKS: ECO-C88, ECOSOFT

_ . vrsA

200 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 127

TEXT PROCESSING

TYPESETTING
PROBLEM SCRIPTS

by Pierre A. MacKay

Computer typesetting provides a solution
for Arabic and similar scripts

THE COMPLICATIONS of typesetting
non-Latin scripts offer a challenge to
the typesetter who has been spoiled
by the English language. Even the
clustering of several accents around
a single character presents difficulties,
and the problems created by genuine-
ly context-sensitive scripts are par-
ticularly problematic in systems based
on the traditions of movable type.

Computer-assisted digital photo-
composition offers an opportunity to
overcome the compromises imposed
on certain non-Latin character sets
during centuries of hot-metal type-
setting.

Characteristics
of Non-Latin Scripts

The next time you are moved to ex-
asperation at the arbitrary historical
rules of English spelling, think about
some of the benefits that come with
them. It is partly the arbitrariness and
inexact match between phoneme and
orthographic representation that has
made it possible for English to repre-
sent its rich and complex system of
sounds without resorting to the use
of diacritical marks, which are modi-
fying marks near or through a char-
acter that indicate a phonetic value

different from that of the unmarked
character.

Every word in English can be cor-
rectly coded using the simple, un-
adorned characters in the old
Hollerith code set. The results, how-
ever ugly, can be read directly from
a printed copy, even when only upper-
case letters are available. Among the
remaining European Latin-letter lan-
guages, diacritical marks are the rule
rather than the exception. (Ironically,
Russian is one of the very few wide-
spread languages besides English that
has freed itself from diacritical adorn-
ments to its alphabet.)

The addition of diacritical marks to
an alphabet, such as the accents of
French, German, Turkish, or, to take a
really extreme case, Czech, cannot
help but complicate text editing, for-
matting, and general processing.
Many languages are even more com-
plicated. In some of these scripts the
actual graphic shapes of the charac-
ters of the basic alphabet are altered
drastically.

The reason for this lies in the history
of literacy in the language. The devel-
opment of a particular style of graphic
representation for an alphabetic char-
acter set (we will avoid any considera-

tion of an ideographic script like
Chinese) is strongly influenced by the
medium on (or in) which the graphic
shapes are produced.

A fairly well-known example of a
script influenced by the medium on
which it is represented is the syllabary
of Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian,
and old Persian. The graphic shapes
used for these languages were
created by pressing a narrow tri-
angular stylus into clay, producing the
wedge-shaped marks, cuneiform,
from which the script gets its name.

The rounded shapes of several
South Indian scripts are believed to
be derived from the "Vatteluttu"
script forms, created by pressing a
stylus on palm leaves. The free-
flowing curves of this script were less
likely to cut through the fiber of the
leaf than straight lines.

The more recent Semitic scripts, of
which Arabic is presently the most
. widespread in general use, were pen-

(continued)
Pierre A. MacKay is a professor of classics
and Near Eastern languages who has been
working on Arabic script typesetting for 16
years. He can be reached at the Department
of Computer Science, FR-3 5, University of
Washington, Seattle, WA 98195.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 201

PROBLEM SCRIPTS

and-ink scripts. It is the development
of Arabic exclusively along the lines
of efficient handwriting that has made
it relatively difficult to work with in an
automated environment.

Stonecutting

Handwriting played a part in the de-
velopment of literacy in both the
Roman and the Greek worlds, but
there was always an alternative model
for letterforms in those cultures. Most
of the Greek states, and Athens in par-
ticular, covered every available flat
stone surface with text. Law decrees,
membership lists, letters, prayers, and
even histories and philosophical
treatises were chipped into stone all
over the Greek world.

The Romans tended, in this as in
other things, to imitate the Greeks.
The stonecutters of the Roman Em-
pire worked out several elegant styles
of detached letterforms for their of-

ficial inscriptions. With the invention
of movable lead type, Italian, French,
and Dutch typeface designers also
learned to look at the stonecutter's
work rather than at manuscripts for
their models. (The Latin-letter serif is
basically a stonecutter's trick to give
a more formal termination to the end
of an inscribed line.)

We can see the importance of
stonecutting in type design when we
consider the long and rather un-
satisfactory history of the develop-
ment of Greek typefaces. There was
plenty of Greek inscriptional material
waiting to be discovered, but it was
not available to typeface designers.
For centuries after they had moved
firmly in the direction of inscriptional
models for the Latin-letter alphabet,
they continued to produce hybrid
typefaces full of illegible ligatures for
Greek.

From the late 18th century on. when

Western Europe began to be flooded
with Greek inscriptions carried over
from the eastern Mediterranean, the
Scottish and English type designers
made a thorough break from hand-
written forms.

Arabic Scripts Unique
Problems

When the first attempts were made in
the late Renaissance to design a type
font for Arabic, there was no model
for the script except handwriting. In
its early centuries, the Arabic lan-
guage was not often inscribed on
stone, and, as the culture developed
and monumental stone inscriptions
became fashionable, stonecutters
were given no incentive to develop
their own letterforms.

The finest Arabic script inscriptions
are imitations of handwriting, and it
is significant that they are usually cut

{continued)

Concurrent™ PC DOS Works For These People

"PhoneXpress™, our
voice messaging pro-
duct, needs the pow-
erful multi-tasking
environment that
Concurrent PC DOS
offers. Also, our pro-
grammers love it, they
can be compiling in
one window and
switch into an editor
which increases pro-
ductivity."
Dennis King
Executive Vice
President, Founder
Applied Voice
Technology

m

jf

} *

#?* ^H

P

J^Tl'^S

"The file manager is
great. It's a step
above the old DOS
system. You don't
have to remember
commands and you
don't have to read the
manual."

John Martinson
Engineer
Pacific Gas
Transmission

"Concurrent PC DOS
gives us the capability
to attach additional
terminals for a more
productive office. It
has a true multi-user
capacity. We can now
meet deadlines."
Richard Vananda
Principal
Patrick Sullivan
Associates,
Architects

"I couldn't live
without the product.
Time is money and
the ability to switch
consoles and run
more than one pro-
gram has been a great
time saver."
Joe Capp
Project Engineer
Union Carbide

Make It Work For You!

Call (800) 443-4200 for the dealer or sales representative nearest you.

Concurrent PC DOS is a trademark and Digital Research is a registered trademark of Digital Research Inc. PhoneXpress is
a trademark of Applied Voice Technology.

"We have created a
menu driven system
that is totally
transparent to our
customers. By utiliz-
ing the menu system
and 4 consoles con-
currently we are able
to fully utilize Con-
current PC DOS"
Subhash Chadha
MIS Director
Secoin Inc.

m DIGITAL

research;

We make computers work.*"

202 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 118

Only one man could
create a full line of
VME boards this fast.

Yes, me.

VME is still in the cradle and already we're offering you
a complete line of twelve analog and digital I/O VME boards.

If you're looking for a single-board solution, there's the
DT1401 series. Up to 32SE/16DI analog inputs, two analog
outputs, 16 lines of digital I/O, and a programmable clock.
Options include 12 or 16-bit resolution, programmable gain,
high-speed and simultaneous sample and hold.

We have analog output boards for both industrial and sci-
entific applications complete with voltage outputs, current
outputs, or for current loop control. There are also 16-bit
deglitched output versions for precision applications like
speech and music synthesis.

In the area of low-cost products, we can
provide a data acquisition subsystem that
includes 16-channel A/D, a programmable
clock, and 16 lines of digital I/O for $395. We
have digital I/O with 32 I/O lines for $225.

All this plus a wide variety of screw
terminal panels and signal
conditioning equipment.

It's no miracle. We just
work like crazy people and
no resting on Sundays.

See our new 646 pg.
catalog/handbook or 1
see us in Gold Book
1986. Or call for your
personal copy today.

Call (617) 481-3700

/// ,

/ m

/ »« /

11

, f It

LtJ,

/ t M f/s

/ * / / - j /// 1

/ J 3 P h

1* $1*1

DT1401

GeneralPurpose

32SE/16DI

12-16

2.5-50

2

12

50

16

Yes

DT1402-F

Highspeed

32SE/16DI

12

125

-

-

-

16

Yes

DT1405

Low Level

32SE/16DI

12-16

0.16-6.7

2

12

50

16

Yes

DT1408

Simultaneous S/H

4SE

12

100

2

12

50

16

Yes

DT1406-8V

Voltage Output

-

-

-

8

12

125

-

-

DT1406-8M

CurrentOutput

-

-

-

8

12

28.5

-

-

DT1406-8CL

Current Loop

-

-

-

8

12

28.5

-

-

DT1403

High Resolution

-

-

-

2or4

16

100

-

-

DT1414

GeneralPurpose

16SE

12

25

-

-

-

16

Yes

DT1417

Digital I/O

-

-

-

-

-

-

32

-

Fred Molinari, President

DATATRANSLATION

World Headquarters: Data Translation, Inc.; 100 Locke Dr., Marlboro, MA 01752 (617) 481-3700 Tlx 951 646

European Headquarters: Data Translation, Ltd., 13 The Business Centre, Molly Millars Lane, Wokingham Berks, RG112QZ, England Tlx 851849862 (#D)

International SalesOffices: Australia (61) 2-6635289; Belgium (32) 2-7352135; Canada (416) 625-1907; Chile (2) 2-253689; China (408) 727-8222, (86)87214017; Denmark (02) 187188;

England (44) 0734-793838; Finland (358) 0-372-144; France (33) 146306839; Greece (30) 031-527039, (30) 13-614300; Hong Kong (852) 3-324563; India (91) 2-231040; Israel (972) 3-

324298; Italy (39) 2349751; Japan (81) 3-502-5550, (81) 3-348-8301, (81) 3-355-1111; Korea (82) 753-3101; Malaysia (60) 3-36299; Morocco (21) 9-30-6949; Netherlands (31) 70996360;

New Zealand (61) 2-663-5289; Norway (47) (02) 559050; Peru (51) ( 14) 31-8060; Philippines 818-0103, 818-3073, 818-4230; Portugal (351) 1545313; Singapore (65) 271-3163; South Africa

(27) 12469221; Spain (34) 14558112; Sweden (46) 87617820; Switzerland (41) 17231410, (41) 22360830; Taiwan (86) 2-721-7864, (86) 2-531-2434; West Germany (49) 89809020.

Inquiry 116

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 203

PROBLEM SCRIPTS

in relief. A calligrapher painted an in-
scription on the surface, and the
stonecutter chiseled away the un-
painted surface to leave the letters
standing out against a background. In
the overall history of Arabic script, the
result is a wonderfully fluid repertory
of graphic shapes, all very beautiful,
but extremely difficult to adapt to the
technology of movable type or
matrix-bound character design.

If we disregard the problems of
graphic representation and look at
the basic linguistic elements of
Arabic, the character set is rather well
suited for computer applications. It is
economical, and it matches the nor-
malized phonetics of the language
very closely. As in all the Semitic lan-
guages, the consonantal character set
carries the essential elements of
meaning, and what we would call
vowels in English provide the clues to
syntactical relationships and other

shades of interpretation.

There are only 28 consonants in the
Arabic language. Persian has 33, and
it requires only a few more for Urdu,
Pashto, Sindhi, Malay and other lan-
guages that are, or can be, written in
Arabic script. If we include the very
limited set of vowels formally recog-
nized in Arabic morphology (disre-
garding any of the complications of
actual pronunciation), we can certain-
ly get just about any Arabic script lan-
guage into the 52 graphic character
cells of an ASCII coding table normal-
ly occupied by the uppercase and
lowercase Roman-letter alphabets.
(The distinction between uppercase
and lowercase does not exist in
Arabic script.)

On a purely abstract level, as long
as no display or hard copy is required,
Arabic script is really rather efficient,
and it will demonstrate its advantages
quite soon in applications such as

PC-AT COMPUTERS CAN GROW UP!

WINCHESTER STORAGE
WITH OPTIONAL BUILT-IN
TAPE OR LASER OPTICAL
DISK

Also Available For . .

Multibus

Unibus

Q-Bus

...ADD 8 INCHES OR MORE!

Mainframe: NMS mass storage.disk, tape back up, and laser optical memory systems
provide economical, compact, and high performance disk storage with capacities of 84mb,
168mb, 335mb, 474mb, and 689 mb. Each controller supports any combination of two
disk capacities, up to 1 ,300 megabytes!

Performance: Access times of 17 milliseconds and data rates of up to 2.4 mb/sec...Fast!
Leading Edge: Single board SMD/SCSI disc/tape/laser optical controller, occupies
only one slot while supporting two SMD disks and your tape or laser optical memory
too! NMS systems utilize Winchester technology exclusively made by Fujitsu. ..including
Fujitsu model 2333 and new 2361.

Laser Optical: Your choice of 400 mb, or 1000 mb of removable, fast, laser optical, read-
write, storage. (NMS 007 series).

Tape Back-up: NMS provides ANSI-IBM format V2 inch tape systems and 60 mb of file-
by-file/streamer 1 /4 inch cartridge tape systems. (NMS 9000 and PC .25 series).
Networks: Compatible with most major networks, NMS storage systems are the highest
performing file servers available. ..reliable too with 60,000 MTBF!
Warranty: Controller. ..24 months (RTV), and 12 months (RTV) all other system parts.

Don't settle for 5 1 /4 inches
when you can get eight!

National Memory Systems Corporation
355 Earhart Way, Livermore, CA 94550

TWX 9103866606
TELEX 821892NMSUD

(415) 443-1669

National
Memory
Systems

CORPORATION

electronic speech synthesis. But the
moment the graphic character set is
needed, the problems begin.

In Arabic script, as a general rule,
the graphic shape of every consonan-
tal symbol is potentially affected by
the shapes of all other consonants in
the word. If storage memory were in-
finite and free and if processing cycles
were instantaneous, the best way to
treat the display of Arabic would be
to generate each word in the lexicon
as a distinct word shape and emulate
the practice of the calligrapher
exactly.

As soon as any of these resources
become limited or in any way expen-
sive, we must compromise. The prob-
lem is to determine where the line of
compromise is drawn. During the past
century, there have been several
radical suggestions to force an entire-
ly new character set on the entire
Arabic-literate public. In the case of
another language, TUrkish, this was ac-
tually done in all regions of TUrkish
speech except northwest Iran and the
Sinkiang region of China.

Almost every variety of TUrkish was
once written in Arabic script, but in
1928 the TUrks of TUrkey were re-
quired by their own government to
switch to a Latin-letter orthography,
while the.Tlirks in the various Russian
provinces, who pioneered in the use
of Latin-letter orthography, have since
been forced to use Cyrillic. But Tlirkish
belongs to a language family quite dif-
ferent from Arabic, and this example
creates no likelihood at all that the
Arabic-speaking world will consent to
drop Arabic script.

ARABIC FONTS

The scripts of India and some other
regions involve graphic variability but
Arabic is certainly the most intract-
able case. A really superior type font
for Arabic in the old days of lead type
could run to nearly a thousand
distinct sorts. With the use of digital
phototypesetters, laser printers, and
similar devices, it is now possible to
exceed that range without much dif-
ficulty. The great advantage that
modern systems have over lead type

[continued)

204 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 240

rrs so f ast. Youn

FLY THROUGH YOUR WORK.

Introducing the NCR PC6.

Whoosh!

That's information coming
up on the new NCR PC6.

The PC6 is NCR's most
powerful personal computer yet.
It's powered by the advanced
Intel 8088-2 microprocessor. So
you can process information near-
ly twice as fast as the PC XT. M

At that rate, you can load
programs faster. Recall files in
an instant. Calculate in a flash.
And get home earlier.

The PC6 stores a lot, too—

up to 40MB of hard disk space,
or about 7,575 single-spaced
typewritten pages.

Of course the PC6 is com-
patible—running over 10,000
business software programs.
In fact, a special switch lets you
operate at either 8 MHz or
4.77 MHz, allowing you to run
software that some other high
performance PCs, like the
PC AT,™ can't run.

And, just in case, you can
get a built-in streaming tape
back-up system to guard
against accidental erasures.

disk damage, or coffee spills.
The NCR PC6. To see it,
fly on down to your NCR
dealer today. For your nearest
NCR dealer, call toll free 1-800-
544-3333.*

A better personal computer.

It's exactly
what you'd expect from NCR.

NCR

Inquiry 380

ft"- ■

■ In Nebraska call 1-800-343-4300,

X — 1 ^

'■ - 1

iEEEEEEEEEEEEE:

'"

■ •

© 1985 NCR Corporation

PROBLEM SCRIPTS

is that they are not constrained by the
physical boundaries of the type body.
The problem that remains, simply
stated, is to take a character set with
only 28 members and map it into a
repertory of graphic shapes of more
or less unlimited size by evaluating
the preceding and following context.

Bidirectional Typesetting

Several rigid mathematical algorithms
for typesetting Arabic scripts were
developed on the assumption that
only the immediately preceding and
following context needs to be con-
sidered. Unfortunately, that is not the
case. A more flexible algorithm is
needed. In addition to the complexi-
ty of the graphic character repertory,
there is the problem of bidirectional
setting.

Arabic like most Semitic languages,
is written from right to left, but it has
adopted a numeric character set that
reads from left to right. Outside the
computing environment, you might
simply choose to enter all numeric
values least significant digit first, but
the universal convention for numeric
values in computing environments is
most significant digit first and when
a mixture of alphabetic and numeric
data is to be displayed in an Arabic
script environment, the problem of bi-
directional setting must be faced.

As soon as any word or phrase from
a non-Semitic language is incor-
porated into an Arabic script text, the
same problem arises. (It also appears
in Hebrew.) The remainder of this ar-
ticle describes an approach to the dis-
play of scripts based on the paradigm
of high-quality typesetting. I believe
that a satisfactory solution to the
problems of typesetting is broadly ap-
plicable to all forms of display and
that techniques adapted from Donald
Knuth's T^X system can be used for
everything from interactive data entry
to low-resolution hard copy to fine
book production.

The TeX Typesetting System

Donald Knuth's precise and tho-
roughly documented T^rX typesetting
system (pronounced "tech," from the
sound of the Greek character chi),

along with the associated METAFONT
design system, was originally devel-
oped for Latin-letter and mathemati-
cal texts. These systems include a
number of general features that allow
their capabilities to be extended into
a wide range of languages that use
context-sensitive character sets, such
as Arabic, Hindi, Persian, Sanskrit, and
many others.

Until quite recently computer-
assisted typesetting was a tightly
closed industry in which special-
purpose software was normally run
on dedicated turnkey hardware.
Among the few systems that were
generally available were the Ibycus
system for scholarly publishing devel-
oped by David Packard Jr. and the
TROFF system, long a part of the
UNIX environment. Both of these sys-
tems were targeted to the same film-
font typesetter, the Graphic Systems
Inc. C/A/T and it is probably for that
reason that the TROFF user has ac-
cess to an unexpectedly good Greek
text font (developed for classicists
using Ibycus). Unfortunately, both sys-
tems were limited in their availability.
Ibycus ran only on a special model of
the Hewlett-Packard minicomputer,
and TROFF ran only on UNIX systems.

The T^X system for technical type-
setting has an advantage in that it
runs on any computer with a sufficient
range of addressable memory and a
reasonably robust Pascal compiler.
There are versions of T^X now run-
ning on everything from DECsys-
tem-10 machines all the way down to
IBM PC X1S and Macintoshes.

When properly implemented and
validated, all versions will accept
exactly the same input files and pro-
duce exactly the same interchange-
able output from them. It is reassur-
ing to know that the software at the
heart of the work is stable and wide-
ly implemented on a variety of ma-
chines, particularly when you face a
long process of development.

Moreover, the software itself is free.
Some of the more difficult implemen-
tations are marketed at reasonable
prices, but the buyer in this case is
paying for the special effort of imple-
mentation rather than for T^X itself.

T£X was released openly, with ex-
haustive source-code documentation,
and can be studied by all users for
guidance toward further enhance-
ments. Finally, although there is only
one family of type fonts (Computer
Modern) through which the entire
range of T£X's capacity can now be
enjoyed, there is no reason for this
limitation to continue. For work on
texts in non-Latin scripts, where there
is a limited number of existing fonts
and few of those are accessible out-
side professional typesetting shops,
METAFONT is the essential accom-
paniment to T£X.

Fonts for Non-Latin Scripts

The first requisite for a non-Latin dis-
play or hard-copy system is a satisfac-
tory graphic character set. A decade
ago, when most applications were still
governed by hardware costs, various
Arabic script repertories were pro-
posed based on a fairly radical distor-
tion of the normal written form.

Perhaps the most extreme was the
character repertory used by the Na-
tional Computer Center in Baghdad,
which made no provision for context-
influenced variants at all. A similarly
limited range of shapes appeared on
a drum printer developed for the
Egyptian government in 1972, and
perhaps the most successful of all
such approaches was the one that
drew on the repertory developed for
the mechanical typewriter, which was
subsequently adopted for various
electromechanical devices such as the
IBM Selectric typewriter.

The typewriter font at its best was
quite readable when implemented on
a large office-standard machine with
differential character widths and
escapements. It was a good deal less
satisfactory when implemented on a
fixed-width Selectric type element or
on the petals of a daisy wheel. More-
over, even the very best typewriter
designs were essentially distortions of
genuine Arabic script. In the news-
paper industry, a slightly larger
character repertory was used, based
on a very peculiar system of key-
boarding, but one Arab critic of a

(continued)

206 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 311

7 a&tcy

Statistics, reports and plots
happen magically with SPSS/PC+
— the enhanced and expanded
Statistical Package for
IBM PC/XT/ATs?

SPSS/PC+ is the most comprehensive
statistical program for performing simple
or complex tasks. For nearly 20 years,
SPSS Incls reputation and reliability as the
leading producer of mainframe statistical
and reporting software is unsurpassed.
SPSS/PC+ carries this reputation into the
PC environment.

SPSS/PC+ -Fully integrated: report writing,
plotting, file management, communications
with mainframes. Statistics: descriptives,
crosstabulation, multiple regression, ANOVA.
Simple facilities allow transfer of files
between SPSS/PC+ and
programs like Lotus 1-2-3,
dBASE III, and SAS?

SPSS/PC+ Advanced Statistics " -

Factor, cluster, discriminant and loglinear
analyses, MANOVA.

SPSS/PC+ Tables'" - Presentation-quality
tabular reporting. Produce stub and banner
tables. Handle multiple response survey data.
Control content and layout completely.

SPSS/PC+ documentation is rated
Number One by both novices and experienced
analysts. SPSS Inc. also offers a full training
schedule and a customer support hot-line.

To order, contact our Sales Department at

312/329-3500

SPSS Inc., 444 N. Michigan Avenue,
Chicago, IL 60611, 312/329-3500.
In Europe: SPSS Europe B.V, 4200 AC
Gorinehem, The Netherlands,
Phone: +31183036711
TWX:21019.

jj^

***** **

PRODUCTIVITY RAISED TO THE HIGHEST POWER "

*SPSS/PC+ runs on the IBM PC/XT/AT with hard disk. Contact SPSS Inc. for compatible microcomputers.
IBM PC/XT and PC/AT are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. dBASE III is a trademark of Ashton-Tate. 1-2-3 is a trademark of Lotus Development Corporation.
SAS is a registered trademark of SAS Institute, Inc. SPSS, SPSS/PC+ , SPSS/PC+ Tables, and SPSS/PC+ Advanced Statistics are trademarks of SPSS Inc. for its proprietary
computer software.

PROBLEM SCRIPTS

well-known newspaper font remarked
in despair that it was fortunate that
this typeface was never seen at any
size larger than 1 2 point, since its true
hideousness would be all too obvious
at any larger size.

There are still applications for which
it is appropriate to use a limited and
distorted character repertory* but the

increasing availability of more power-
ful technologies argues in favor of
returning to the better styles of Arabic
script. Good typefaces are no luxury;
they materially enhance legibility and
ease of understanding for the reader.
In the past 20 years, the computer has
completely transformed the typeset-
ting industry, and in the past four or

Programmer
L-1 Essentials

"Offers many capabilities for a reasonable price" 0i

1 p W. Hunt, PC Tech Journal °>
°o I highly recommend the D UTILITY LIBRARY'' o°

D. Deloria, The C Journal

Oessentials $100

200 functions: video, strings, keyboard, directories, files, time/date and more.
Source code is 95% C. Comprehensive manual with plenty of examples. Demo
programs on diskette. Upgrade to THE C UTILITY LIBRARY for $95.

THEOUTILITY LIBRARY $185

Thousands in use world wide. 300 functions for serious software developers.
The C ESSENTIALS plus "pop-up" windows, business graphics, data entry, DOS
command and program execution, polled async communications, sound and
more.

ESSENTIAL GRAPHICS $250

Fast, powerful, and easy to use. Draw a pie or bar chart with one function.
Animation (GET and PUT), filling (PAINT) and userdefinable patterns. IBM color,
IBM EGA and Hercules supported (more soon). NO ROYALTIES. Save $50 when
purchased with above libraries. Available February, 1986.

Compatible with Microsoft Ver. 3, Lattice, Aztec, Mark Williams, CI-C86,
DeSmet, and Wizard C Compilers. IBM PC/XT/AT and true compatibles.

CCompiler Packages: Microsoft C - 319, Lattice or CI-C86 compilers
-$329. Save $40 - $50 when purchasing compiler and library combinations.
Specify C compiler and version number when ordering. Ada$4for UPS or $7 for
UPS 2-day. NJ residents add 6% sales tax. Visa, MC, Checks, PO's.

££= ESSENTIAL SOFTWARE, INC

^^v5 P.O. Box 1003 Maplewood, NJ 07040 914/762-6605

five years, programs such as Micro-
T^X have brought the capabilities of
genuine typesetting within reach of
even the personal computer user.

There are now signs that the com-
puting industry has begun to learn
from the typesetter. The general ac-
cessibility of bit-mapped displays,
medium-resolution dot-matrix print-
ers, and laser printers is creating a
taste for improved character sets and
better formatting.

All such character: sets are based on
the same principle. The low-resolution
dot-matrix character is the most easily
described. Omitting the small number
of applications that use color or gray-
scale values for special enhancements
of the character set, every character
in a modern computer-based system
is generated by turning a selected
area either black or white.

At very low resolutions, where a
single character space may contain
200 or fewer cells, it is often accept-
able to work directly with a grid, using
some sort of interactive program to
blacken individual pixels one by one.
Many of the currently available per-
sonal computers offer this facility to
the user who wants to create a new
character set. You can't go too far
wrong with a matrix of this small size,
although optical effects can some-
times be surprising when a large pat-
tern is reduced to a normal typeface
size.

At the developing industry standard
of 300 dots per inch, a large character
in a 10-point font occupies a field of
over 2000 pixels. It would be tedious
to create even one font at this den-
sity by blackening pixels one by one,
and when you consider that every
distinct point size requires going
through the entire character set again,
it is obvious that some sort of auto-
mation is essential.

There are two approaches to this
automation.' One, commonly used in
the typesetting industry, involves
scanning complete images to produce
digitized outline representations of
each character. A computer can then
superimpose these images on a
matrix of any required density. This

[continued)

208 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 132

Turbo, who?

Do you have to give up power and advanced potential

to get ease of use and aff ordability? Not anymore.

Because now, you can have UCSD Pascal for only $79.95!

If you're making your move into
programming, there's no better way
to go than Pascal. And starting now,
you dont have to settle for
a stripped-down
version of Pascal
in order to get a price
that's right. Instead,
you can choose UCSD Pascal- the
recognized Pascal programming
standard in colleges and uni-
versities throughout the
country- at the incredibly
low introductory price
of $79.95 for your \

PC-DOS, MS-DOS, or
other popular computer.

Start with the standard

With an entry-level system,
you spend a lot of valuable
time learning a non-standard
form of Pascal. And you
don'tgetall the capabilities a true
Pascal system is supposed to
deliver- unless you buy a lot of
add-on utilities— which can send
the cost of your system sky-high!
Worst of all, when you're ready
to tackle anything more than short,
simple programs -you have no
choice but to move up to a more
sophisticated system (like UCSD
Pascal). And at that point, you also
have to relearn standard Pascal.

UCSD Pascal

has everything you need

With UCSD Pascal, you get a

k*

HJCSD

Pascal

-

full-featured,
professional programming tool thafs
being used right now in the
development of major scientific and
business applications. The system
comes with an outstanding text
editor, a complete on-line tutorial,
8087 math coprocessor support and
BCD (decimal arithmetic) //?c/f/cfecf in
the package at no extra cost. In fact,
UCSD Pascal contains
virtually everything you
need -as standard
J w equipment -for devel-

oping the simplest
to the most

sophisticated programs.

UCSD Pascal is available for
MS-DOS, PC-DOS, UNIX, VMS,
MSX and many other operating
systems. You can use UCSD Pascal
to write programs of any size on
virtually any computer, and port
them to any other computer. And if
speed is what you're after, the latest
native code version of UCSD Pascal
actually benchmarks favorably
with Turbo Pascal® in ■P*'

execution time! ^ *

Programming that's easy
...and fun!

At Pecan Software Systems, we
strongly believe programming
should be as easy as possible.
JJCSD Pascal was originally designed
for teaching programming
skills, so ifs extremely
easy to learn and to use.
With UCSD Pascal, you'll
be developing programs right
from the start that are
easy to write, easy to
understand, and easy to
maintain. We also believe
that programming should
be fun. So we've made UCSD Pascal
as enjoyable to use as it is powerful.

The right tool at the
right price

When the fun gets serious, you'll
have a comprehensive programming
system right at your fingertips with
UCSD Pascal -a system that will
help you develop those big-league
programs you may eventually want
to write -at a price you can readily
afford.

Put UCSD Pascal programming
power on your PC now for only
$79.95! Order by mail today or phone
now 1-800-63-PECAN. UCSD Pascal
-the original standard of Pascal pro-
gramming excellence. The new
leader in Pascal price/
performance. • ^ T

The UCSD Pascal Company

Pecan Software Systems, Inc.

1410 39th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11218

718-851-3100 ^

6 a trade-
mark of
Commodore
Electronics
LTD

APPLE &
MACINTOSH axe
trademarks at
fwk Computer.

ATM .920 is a

trademark of Atari «

RAINBOW rs a *

trademark of Digttaf
Eqtuipment Corporation.

TANDY rs a tradfh

trtiartt of Radio Shack,
Turbo Pascal ts a
registered trademark
of BoflarKl Internationa!

\

a i von- - ?n« ein coP^cfcW**"

m

flatty

CtfA*

Ca» 0<

*■«?£$?

wm

UCSD Pascal is a registered trademark of The Regents of University ol Catilornia

#*1

*S$5>' N**"

#90

Inquiry 255

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 209

THE PCS LIMITED AT™-$ 1995.
THE PCS LIMITED TURBO PC™- $795

At these prices, it's no wonder
: - ; we're burning up the marketplace,

Yes, you can believe it. Since we ran our first advertisement for the PC's Limited AT™ and Turbo PC™, the calls weVe received mostly start
with comments like v is this for real?" And "How can that be?" But now that our machines are in the hands of influential buyers, the questions
tend to concern quantity discounts for further purchases. (Which are available.) You see, the PC's Limited machines are assembled from
components bought worldwide with our strong buying power. Then they are offered directly to you— with no middleman markups, So light a
match to your old budgets. With the savings we're providing, you'll have money to burn.

PC'S LIMITED AT

-80286-based System Unit (runs at 6MHZ, SUEZ optional)

-1024K on Mother Board

—1.2 Meg Floppy Drive

—Combined Floppy/Hard Disk Controller Card

-AT Keyboard

-192W Power Supply

-2 Serials and 1 Parallel Port

-Clock/Calendar with Battery Backup

Runs all Major Software written for the IBM PC™, PC XT™, and
PC AT™. Unit has 8 Expansion Slots, with 7 available in above
configuration. Same Bus Configuration as IBM PC AT™.

PC'S LIMITED TURBO PC

-16-bit 8088-2 System Unit (running at 4.77 or 6.66MHZ)

— 640K on Mother Board

-360K Floppy Drive

—Keyboard

-135W Power Supply

Runs all Major Software written for the IBM PC™ and
PC XT™, 40% faster, without modifications. Unit has
8 Expansion Slots, with 7 available in above configuration.

IBM ! is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.

IBM PC. PC XT, and PC AT are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.

mm

PC'S LIMITED

SALES-RELATED CALLS OUTSIDE TEXAS, 1-800-426-5150

161 1 Headway Circle, Building 3, Austin, Texas 78754

Sales Calls from anywhere in country, (512) 339-6962

Technical Support Calls, (512) 339-6963 Customer Service Calls, (512) 339-6964

Telex Ne. 9103808386 PC LTD

Ad number 401

PROBLEM SCRIPTS

is by far the most efficient way to pro-
duce imitations of older classic type
fonts, but it requires expensive hard-
ware and is not readily available to the
general user.

METAFONT

The other approach is the META-
FONT system, a program closely as-
sociated with T[rX that will run on any
machine powerful enough to run T^X.
A METAFONT description defines the
shape of a character by specifying the
movement of a pen over a Cartesian
coordinate system. The coordinate
system is entirely independent of
both point size and pixel-per-inch
resolution, so that a single META-
FONT description can be used for a
very wide range of display technolo-
gies, from CRT displays of 72 pixels
per inch to typesetters of 53 33 lines
per inch.

The metaphor of penmanship used
in METAFONT requires some modifi-
cation and adjustment when applied
to a Latin-letter font, but it is ideal for
scripts based on handwriting. In the
new version of METAFONT we can
shape a pen, apply it to the paper
with the appropriate orientation, and
proceed to create penstrokes in just
the manner that is required for Arabic
script. METAFONT does not offer a
quick-and-dirty way to create type-
fonts; the real effort of design is the
same no matter what the tools may
be, but a METAFONT character set
produced with the proper attention to
detail should be able to rival any other
font created for digital typesetting.

Setting Non-Latin Text

Even when we take account of the
fine details of line breaking and
hyphenation, an English-language
paragraph is a fairly simple artifact.
Most typesetting software will accept
an undifferentiated sequence of ASCII
or EBCDIC character codes and space
codes and will break this up into lines
of acceptable length. In nearly all in-
stances, moreover, the match be-
tween input code and output graphic
symbol (typeface) is fairly close to one
to one.

[continued)
« — Inquiry 253

RUN. EDIT. RUN. EDIT. RUN.
COMPILE.

If you're not using a C interpreter,
you're not getting the most out of your C compiler.

Stop cursing at your compiler for slow compilation times. Don't blame your compiler. It
was designed to produce great executable code. Try RUN/C" instead. RUN/C was de-
signed to let you edit, test, and debug program modules interactively without delay.
RUN/C and your compiler are a natural combination for fast C program development.

NOW THERE ARE TWO RUN/C'S.

ANNOUNCING RUN/C AND RUN/C PROFESSIONAL!

Thousands of RUN/C users were happy with RUN/C just the way it was. But some
people (mainly professional programmers) wanted more. So we developed two RUN/C
packages. RUN/C provides all the standard RUN/C advantages. RUN/C Profes-
sional adds new and powerful facilities for serious software development.

Now with RUN/C Professional, you can dynamically load and unload previously
compiled functions, and execute these functions in real-time at compiled speed. Use
your favorite libraries (Greenleaf,'" C-Food Smorgasbord," Multi-Halo,' w GSS ! ' Graphics,
etc.) as part of your RUN/C interpreted code. No need for special configuration, as with
some interpreters. (To create new Loadable Libraries'" Lattice"' large-model is required.)

DEBUGGING TOOLS

Besides the standard TRON and PRON, RUN/C Professional includes an array of new
source-code debugging facilities, to test your modules before compiling. TRACE by line
ranges. Immediate mode allows you to execute by function. Set multiple breakpoints.
Read and/or change the value of a variable and continue with the execution of a
program.

FULL-SCREEN EDITOR

A full-screen editor with Wordstar'"-like commands is built into RUN/C for program
editing convenience.

For immediate delivery ormoreinformation, contact
LIFEBOAT" ASSOCIATES

1651 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10128
Telex: 424490 (LBSOFTUI)
Telephone: 800-847-7078

212-860-0300 (in New York State)
Dealers Welcome Visa, Mastercard, American Express accepted

INTERNATIONAL SALES OFFICES

Italy Lifeboal Associates. S p A . Milan, Phone (02) 656-841
Japan LilcboalJapan, Tokyo Phone (03)293-4711
Scandinavia Lileboal Scandinavia Malmoe, Sweden

Phone (46) 40-10035
England Grey Matter, Lid . Asburlon, Devon Phone (44)364 53499
Australia. Fagan Microprocessor Associales. Middtepark. Victoria

Phone (61)3699 9899

Liteboal. TheSourcelor Software with Full Support, and Lileboal logo are Irademarks of Lifeboat Associates ■ RUN/C, RUN/C Prolessional,
and Loadable Libraries are Irademarks of Age of Reason Co • Lattice is a registered trademark of and CFood Smorgasbord is a trademark of Lattice.
Inc. • Wordstar is a trademark ol MicroProlnlernalional Corporation. Inc ■ GSS is-a registered trademark of Graphic Software Systems, tnc • Multi-Halo
is a Irademark ol Media Cybernelics ■ Greenleal is a trademark of Greenlea! Software •

The Source for Software with Full Support"

f"=< 1985 Lifeboat Associales
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Inquiry 190

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 211

OnlyToshiba printers

combine the

beauty of the daisy with

the spe^d of the dot.

The Toshiba 3-in-One™ printers.

Toshiba's 3-in-One printers are the
IBM PC-compatible printersthatgive you the best
of everything.

Because their 24- pin printhead gives you beauti-
ful letter-quality type like a daisy Combined with the
quiet speed and perfect graphics of the matrix.

In the world of business printers this combination
makes Toshiba the leader in the letter-quality matrix
category And our 3-in-One printers a breed apart.
So your printouts stand apart from the crowd.-

Toshiba's 3-in-One 136-column
printers also give you both down-
loadable type fonts and plug-in type
font cartridges for an almost unlimited
number of ways to express yourself.
For mdFf information, call 1 -800-457-7777 Oper-
ator 32. And tell us
you'd like to see
the beauty of the ||j
daisy and the
speed of the dot.

In Touch with Tomorrow

TOSHIBA

TOSHIBA AMERICA. INC. information Systems Division

212 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 339

PROBLEM SCRIPTS

In a heavily accented or context-
sensitive script this match can no
longer be counted on. (We may still
be able to stay fairly close to the one-
to-one match in accented languages
that require only simple diacritical
marks, such as accented French, for
example). If there is only a single
diacritical mark, it can be floated over
the letter graphic with reasonable
precision and without an excessive
overhead in positioning software.

However, in a language such as
scholarly Greek, where a cluster of
three diacritical marks is not unusual
and four or five is not unknown, the
overhead for repositioning individual
accents is no longer acceptable. It is
nearly impossible to get satisfactory
accent placement without resorting to
special preformed characters that
combine the full accent cluster with
its supporting letter.

For the Devanagari character reper-
tory used in Hindi and Sanskrit, the
problem is even greater, since con-
sonants regularly cluster into special
graphic elements representing three
or more consonantal sounds. With
Arabic's rich and fluid character reper-
tory, the problem becomes extreme.

There are, however, mechanisms in
the T^X system that can provide a
solution. In all three instances noted
above— Greek, Devanagari, and
Arabic script— the graphic character
repertory can be viewed as a collec-
tion of ligatures. We can use the
ligature mechanism of T^X to gen-
erate the references to the needed
graphic shapes. This mechanism is
used in the normal English-language
applications of T^X to take care of
typical Latin-letter typesetting conven-
tions such as the generation of the
"ffi" ligature from the three letters f,
f, and i. This ligature is appropriate in
a serifed Roman font but not, for ex-
ample, in a fixed-width typewriter
font, and the ligature specifications
are therefore tied not to the general
program but to the style of the par-
ticular font itself.

TFM Files

Each type font used by T^X has an
associated 'T E X Font Metric" (TFM)

file. This file contains all the informa-
tion about each character in the font
except what the character actually
looks like. Among the other details,
such as height, depth, and width for
each character (or, more correctly, for
the "box" in which each character
fits), is a tag indicating whether there
is a ligature 'program" associated
with that character. Each statement in
such a program is contained in a
32-bit word read as four 8-bit bytes.
The programming language used is
described in the source code of the
T E X program and associated TjrX-
ware programs.

This mechanism is certainly power-
ful enough to deal with the more
densely accented forms of Greek, and
it is probably sufficient even for the
conjunct graphic characters of
Devanagari. The only question that
might arise in the case of Devanagari
is whether a 256-character font is
large enough to hold all the required
conjuncts.

In all probability, a judicious
use of half-characters side by side
with fully formed ligatures will provide
the full range of graphic shapes
needed. The operations applied to
the input codes will be essentially the
same as those used to generate the
ffi ligature. There will simply be more
of them.

For Arabic script, however, the exist-
ing ligature "program" is not ade-
quate. If we treat each alphabetic in-
put code independently and supply
a ligature graphic for each significant
pairing, we end up with an immense
character repertory whose identifier
codes run well beyond the limits of
the 8-bit fields that T E X currently
reads. (There are many unused bits in
the ligature program word, but, unfor-
tunately, at this time T E X does not
read them.)

Moreover, if we look forward only,
as the standard ligature program
does, we quickly run into a formidable
number of permutations, most of
which generate significant ligatures.
There is an interesting cautionary note
in the T E X source that gives some in-
dication of the overhead involved:

{continued)

TheToshiba P341

printer.

The outstanding

value in 3-in-One™

technology.

Dollar for dollar, nothing matches
what our P341 can do for your office.
Here's quality, versatility and expand-
ability at an entry-level price. The
Toshiba P341. The mid-range printer
with features that are tops.
Speed: 72 characters per second -
letter quality; 216 characters per second
(12 cpi)— draft quality.
Reliability: In-use tests show the
Toshiba 3-in-One printer can operate
without fail for up to 5 years of normal
workdays.

Compatibility T oshiba's 3-in-One
printers are compatible with major soft-
ware packages.

Interchangeability : Our parallel and
serial interfaces make the 3-in-One series
compatible with all micros. Today— and
tomorrow.

In Tbuch with Tbmorrow

TOSHIBA

TOSHIBAAMERICA. INC . Iniormaiion Systems DiviSitn

Inquiry 339

PROBLEM SCRIPTS

"Even though comparatively few char-
acters have a lig/kern program, the bf-
repeat construction here counts as
part of TeX's inner loop, since it in-
volves a potentially long sequential
search. For example, tests with one
commonly used font showed that
about 40 percent of all characters had
a lig/kern program, and the bf- repeat

loop was performed about four times
for every such character."

Context Evaluation

Without attempting an estimate, we
may guess that the extensive evalua-
tions needed for Arabic would soak
up most of TeX's computing time. We
need to find some way to shorten the

Don't get burned by \
surge protection aloneX,

Now get total power protection ... for as little
as $139. ..with the Personal Computer Line Tamer™
Power Conditioner.

Why risk any power
trouble?

You will if you buy just
a surge protector.
Transients and spikes
cause less than half
of all power prob-
lems. Overvoltages,
brownouts and just
plain power noise
can mess up your
system just as badly-
and they're much more fre-
quent. Only Line Tamer's ferro-
resonant technology protects
you from any conceivable pow
er problem, short of a blackout

Line Tamers have protected
the big boys for years, on all
the big mainframes and minis
Those guys would laugh at
surge suppression alone.

SHAPE

MAGNETRONICS. INC

Choose from 150,
300,450, or 600 VA
models for the Line
Tamerthat's right for
you.

Does it make sense
to you to be half safe
. . . especially when
so few dollars are in-
volved?

You won't find this to-
tal power protection
from anyone else at anywhere
near the price, so contact us for
complete specifications and the
dealer nearest you.

THE CLEAN

POWER

SOURCE

90l DuPage Avenue, Lombard, IL 60148
Phone 1 312 620-8394»TWX 910-991-2352

search, and the best approach ap-
pears to be the one used 10 years ago
in the KATIB typesetter program,
which was successfully used to pro-
duce only a single book before it died
of an acute case of machine-de-
pendent code.

In this program, the characteristics
of the preceding input code were
remembered, and the program chose
one of several different paths of
evaluation by referring to that
"preceder" code. To further reduce
the number of different paths, the
graphic shapes of Arabic were clas-
sified by penstroke rather than by
alphabetic value. For example, the let-
ters B, P, T. TH, N, and Y all behave
in the same way at the beginning of
a word and are differentiated only by
the application of clusters of dots that
float either above or below the basic
penstroke. Therefore, the letter B can
be used as a general paradigm.

The evaluation program first selects
the correct form for the continuous
penstroke and then applies the appro-
priate cluster of dots. The new con-
text-evaluation program is based on
T E X, but it will not be built into T E X.
For a time it seemed that it might be
necessary to create an Arabic-speak-
ing dialect of T E X, but that was clearly
undesirable, and in a UNIX environ-
ment, the alternative "little program"
approach through a preprocessor is
clearly preferable. The preprocessor
will borrow as much usable code as
possible from T E X and will avoid
tampering with the control sequences
and the general non-Arabic script ele-
ments of a T E X input file.

The Arabic text will be written in
some sort of efficient coding such as
the ASMO 449 code, which is likely
to become an international standard
in the near future. Just as Latin-letter
fonts carry their own ligature styles,
so the Arabic fonts will carry their
own context-evaluation styles. Each
Arabic script font will have an as-
sociated context-evaluation (CTX) file
as well as a canonical TFM file. The
effort of producing a good Naskhi
style of context evaluation will prob-
ably be all I wish to undertake, but

[continued)

214 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 291

COST SAVING

CONNECTIONS

RS232 INTERFACE PROBLEM SOLVERS... FROM WESTERN TELEMATIC INC.

END DATA SWITCHING
PROBLEMS

Is switching data cables becoming a
pain in the ASCII? Automatically switch
between computers, printers,
instruments — just about any
RS232 device.

Economically expand
computer ports, access
multiple computers or
remote peripherals.

From simple AB
switches to intelligent
196 port code activated switch-
ing systems, our reliable, easy to use,
interface switches will help end your
interconnect problems.

EFFICIENT
PRINTER SHARING

It's time to make more efficient use of
your expensive printers. Share a single
plotter, daisy wheel, dot matrix or laser
printer with up to 8 computers, word
processors or CAD systems. Ideal for
the automated office, school or engi-
neering lab.

TERMINAL or COMPUTER

Fi] l~a| ITI

AFFORDABLE
RS232 NETWORKING

Create your own local network with
our Any-port to Any-port Smart
Switches. Available in either 8 or 16
port versions, the Smart Switch is ideal
for computer port expansion, com-
puter sharing, engineering work
clusters and much more.

Each port has its own spooling
buffer. So any baud rate can communi-
cate with any other baud rate and
parity anywhere in the system.

CONCERNED ABOUT
DATA SECURITY?

MATRIX PRINTER

POINTER SHARING UN

PRINTER or PLOTTER

Our 4 or 8 port Printer Sharing Units
work automatically. No cable switching
or knobs to turn. Software changes are
usually unnecessary since they use
standard Ready/Busy or XON/XOFF
handshaking.

Inquiry 356 for End-Users. Inquiry 357 for DEALERS ONLY.

A special supervisory port lets you
monitor activity on any other port,
connect ports together, broadcast
messages or designate the supervi-
sory power to other ports.

The Smart Switch is easy to use.
User friendly commands allow you to
select ports, disconnect and display
port activity. A push button defines
each port for either DCE or DTE. So if
you need an intelligent, affordable way
to link your RS232 system, you're
ready for the Smart Switch.

Prevent unauthorized access to your
computer system. Our Dial-back
Security Unit prevents outsiders from
peeking at, destroying or tampering
with your data. Only users entering
authorized passwords and dial-
back numbers stored in the
|«| 200 number battery backed
directory will be allowed
access.

An auxiliary com-
mand port is used to
set-up the directory and
security levels as well as
log each password attempt
and duration of each call.
Simply connect the DSU between
your computer and modem and feel
secure about who's using your data.

QUALITY PRODUCTS

Every WTI product is designed and
manufactured with quality and reliabil-
ity as a major requirement. We're so
confident you'll like our products that
we offer a 30 day return policy. Com-
pare our features, quality, customer
support and prices with any other
manufacturer and you'll know why
WTI is a recognized leader in the Data
Communications industry.

IT'S ALL IN THE BOOK.. .IT'S FREE

Descriptions, diagrams, specifications and prices for
the above products, plus many more, are in our col-
orful new catalog. It's your cost saving connection
...just ask for it!

Call toll
free:

1-800-854-7226

(in California 714/979-0363)

m\^u

western
telematic inc.

2435 S. Anne St., Santa Ana, CA 92704 • Telex 467741

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 215

1

1 Exxon

2

General Motors

3

Mobil

4

Ford Motor

5

IBM

6

Texaco

7

E.L du Pont

8

Standard Oil (Ind.)

9

Standard Oil of Cal.

10

General Electric

11

Gulf Oil

12

Atlantic Richfield

13

Shell Oil

14

Occidental Petroleum

15

U.S. Steel

16

Phillips Petroleum

million
Americans
cant read.
And guess
who pays
the price.

Every year, functional
illiteracy costs American
business billions.

But your company can
fight back... by joining
your local community's
fight against illiteracy.
Call the Coalition for
Literacy at toll-free
1-800-228-8813 and find
out how.

You may find it's the
greatest cost-saving
measure your company
has ever taken.

A literate

America is a

good investment.

GoukiI

CBalition for Literacy

PROBLEM SCRIPTS

One of TeX's best
features is its line-
breaking algorithm.

those with a taste for Kufi or Nestalik
are welcome to take them on.

There is every reason to hope that
METAFONT will be used to increase
the availability of non-Latin fonts of
every description. Assuming that all
this development goes smoothly, T^X
should be able to produce a device-
independent (DVI) file with all the rich
variety of Arabic script characters
ready to paint onto typesetting film.

There would be one flaw. The
Arabic script text would be in the
wrong order for reading. T^X sees the
world through Latin-letter spectacles
and has a deeply ingrained bias in
favor of left-to-right text. Moreover,
that bias lies at the very heart of one
of T^X's best features, the line-
breaking algorithm. To alter that in
any way would be to lose one of the
most attractive features of T^X.

Fortunately, no alteration is neces-
sary. Although the other features of
Arabic script seem designed to make
automation as difficult as possible,
solving the problem of bidirectional
typesetting, which Arabic shares with
the scripts of other Semitic languages,
turns out to be relatively simple.

No matter what the dominant text
direction is, it will always be satisfac-
tory to set all text in either right-to-
left or left-to-right order and to
reverse the inverted text after it has
been set. If we assume that the
general environment is left-to-right
Latin-letter text, then any insert in
right-to-left order should be treated as
an "atom" within that environment.

If a right-to-left atom is so long that
it extends past a line break, then it
should be treated exactly as a hy-
phenated word is treated. The first
fragment of a hyphenated word in
Latin-letter text appears at the right
end of the line, and the second part
appears at the left end of the suc-
ceeding line.

Similarly, the first part of a split
right-to-left atom appears at the right
end of a Latin-letter line and the sec-
ond part appears at the left end of the
succeeding line. If the right-to-left
atom is so long that it extends over
more than a line, then some part of
it will fall in a line that is composed
entirely of right-to-left text, and in this
case the entire line must be reversed,
which is not difficult at all. This is a
particularly satisfactory solution in
that it can take care of nested changes
of reading direction to any level of
nesting.

The example given above is of a
right-to-left atom in a left-to-right en-
vironment, but it can easily and cor-
rectly be extended to take care of an
inner left-to-right atom within the first
atom, etc., to whatever depth of rever-
sal it is possible to imagine. Owing to
the peculiarities of the numeric char-
acter set in Arabic and Hebrew, a nest-
ing level of 2 will be quite common,
and levels of 3 and 4 can easily be
imagined.

DVI FILES

In integrating a system of text rever-
sals with T^X output, we run into a
piece of sheer luck. We can easily set
some sort of marker at the beginning
and end of any reversing insert but
that provides only half the guidance
needed. Each line must be reversed
separately after the paragraph algo-
rithm has done its job, and the input
file cannot have any knowledge of
where the line breaks will fall. We
need the assurance that we can dis-
cover the beginning and end of each
line in a paragraph by inspection of
the device-independent file. (DVI files
contain text to be output, in T^X's in-
ternal device-independent form of
ASCII code. DVI files can be trans-
ferred from one type of computer to
another without modification.)

Among the codes provided in the
tight and economical format for DVI
files is a pair of stack-oriented PUSH
and POP commands. For the start of
each line of a paragraph there is a
PUSH to an inner level and a POP
back to the next outer level at the end

(continued)

MICRO CAP and MICRO LOGIC
put your engineers on line...

not in line. tg^

/vfc-xr/

lAy OYW, WORKSTATION

How many long unproductive hours
have you spent "in line" for your simula-
tion? Well, no more. MICROCAP and
MICROLOGIC can put you on line by
turning your PC into a productive and
cost-effective engineering workstation.

Both of these sophisticated engineering
tools provide you with quick and efficient
solutions to your simulation problems.
And here's how.

MICROCAP:

Your Analog Solution

MICROCAP is an interactive analog
circuit drawing and simulation system.
It allows you to sketch a circuit diagram
right on the CRT screen, then run an AC,
DC, or Transient analysis. While pro-
viding you with libraries for defined
models of bipolar and MOS devices,
Opamps, transformers, diodes, and much
more, MICROCAP also includes features
not even found in SPICE.

MICROCAP II lets you be even more
productive. As an advanced version, it
employs sparse matrix techniques for
fester simulation speed and larger net-

"Typical MICROCAP Transient Ana lysis"

works. In addition, you get even more
advanced device models, worst case capa-
bilities, temperature stepping, Fourier
analysis, and macro capability.

MICROLOGIC:
Your Digital Solution

MICROLOGIC provides you with a
similar interactive drawing and analysis
environment for digital work. Using
standard PC hardware, you can create
logic diagrams of up to 9 pages with each
containing up to 200 gates. The system
automatically creates the netlist required
for a timing simulation and will handle
networks of up to 1800 gates. It provides
you with libraries for 36 user-defined
basic gate types, 36 data channels of 256
bits each, 10 user-defined clock wave-
forms, and up to 50 macros in each net-
work. MICROLOGIC produces
high-resolution timing diagrams showing
selected waveforms and associated
delays, glitches, and spikes — just like the
real thing.

"Typical MICROLOGIC Diagram"

Reviewers Love
These Solutions

Regarding MICROCAP ... "A highly
recommended analog design program"
(PC Tech Journal 3/84). "A valuable tool
for circuit designers" (Personal Software
Magazine 11/83).

Regarding MICROLOGIC . . . "An effi-
cient design system that does what it is
supposed to do at a reasonable price"
(Byte 4/84).

MICROCAP and MICROLOGIC are
available for the Apple II (64k), IBM PC
(128k), and HP- 150 computers and priced
at S475 and S450 respectively. Demo
versions are available for S75.

MICROCAP II is available for the
Macintosh, IBM PC (256k), and HP-150
systems and is priced at $895. Demo
versions are available for S100.

Demo prices arecredited to the
purchase price of the actual system.

Now, to get on line, call or write today!

Spectrum Software

1021 S. Wolfe Road, Dept. B
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
(408)738-4387 Inquiry 310

Inquiry 53 for End-Users.
Inquiry 54 for DEALERS ONLY.

BUILD YOUR OWN IBM XT &
IBM AT COMPATIBLE SYSTEMS

Introducing XT-16 Self Assembly Kit

At Super Low Cost

• lncluding640KXT-l6CPU Mother Board, Color
Graphic Card. Floppy Controlle r, One DS/DD Slim
Drive, Flip-Top Case,
135 W Power Supply,
Keyboard, Assembly
Instruction, and User's
Svstem Manual.

ONLYS775.00

XT, AT CASE

» Same Dimension as • Flip-Top For Easy &

IBM PC/AT Quick Access to Inside

► For IBM PC/AT & Com- • IBM Style Slide-In Case

patible Mother Boards Also Available

$115.00 $69.1

^£^

XT-

XT, AT POWER SUPPLY

XT 135 W $ 89.00
(Side Or Rear Switch)

XT-150W $115.00

AT-200 W $165.00

XT, AT KEYBOARD

-LED for Cap
Lock &Num. Lock
Big Return Kev &
Shift Kev
S79.00

AT-

JE^p?

^3EB

-Same Layout as
IBM PC/AT
$109.00

XT. AT MOTHER BOARD

XT-16-II MOTHER BOARD

• IBM PC/XT Fully Compatible

• 8088 Microprocessor w/8087 Optional

• 8 I/O Slots, up to 640K on Board
Assembled & Tested w/BIOS

With 256K on Board S265.00

With 640K on Board $349.00

AT-32 CPU Mother Board

• IBM PC/AT Fully Compatible

• 80286 Microprocessor w/80287 Optional

• 640K Standard, Upgradable to 1 MB on Board

• On Board Clock Calendar

• 8 I/O Slots SCall

PC/AT ADD-ON CARD

• ATS I MB Memory Card SCall

• ATS 1. 5 MB Multifunction Card SCall

• ATS Hard & Floppy Drive Controller SCall

• PCP-128 Eprom Programmer $139.00

• Disk I/O Card (handle 2 Floppy Drive, Serial
2nd Optional), Parallel, Game, Clock w/cables

& Software $149.00

• ColorGraphicCard $ 95.00

• Floppy Disk controller

(handle 4 drives) $ 59.00

• Multi-Function (OK) $139.00

• OEM Dealers Welcome

• Please Call For Our Special Dealer Price

CJ. COMPUTERS CORP.

(Manufacturer & Distributor)
2424 W. Ball Road, STE B
Anaheim, CA 92804

Mail Order Hot Line: (714) 821-8922. (714)821-8923

( IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation)

PROBLEM SCRIPTS

The nature of Arabic
script precludes the use
of hyphenation as a
justification aid.

of the line. Any reversal of direction
will take place within a line and there-
fore at an inner stack level. The
specific guarantee of this essential
feature can be found in the WEB
source listing of TjrX in the module
that declares the procedure hlisLout.

IVDDVI POSTPROCESSOR

Assuming that we have entered a
state in which horizontal material is
being accumulated for eventual rever-
sal, whenever a DVI postprocessor
detects a drop to a lower stack level
any code sequence that has already
been accumulated is reversed and
sent to output. As long as the stack
level remains low, the codes dis-
covered in the DVI file are not subject
to this process of reversal (we are here
disregarding the effect of inner levels
of reversal), but as soon as the stack
level climbs again, code sequences
begin to be accumulated for reversal
once again. The postprocessor as-
signed to this function is, for obvious
reasons, called IVDDVI.

For a script such as square-letter
Hebrew, this part of IVDDVI is suffi-
cient, and the operation described
above is very similar to a scheme de-
veloped for output from a bidirec-
tional TROFF system created by Cary
Buchman and Daniel Berry at the
University of California at Los
Angeles, and another created for a
bilingual enhancement of the IBM
DCF SCRIPT system by Peter Schilling
and R. Wonneberger of DESY. Ham-
burg, West Germany.

The IVDDVI program does some-
thing more, however, for Arabic script.
The nature of the script precludes the
use of hyphenation as an aid to line
justification, and T E X will have to treat
lines of Arabic script as if the pre-
hyphenation penalty did not exist.

This will inevitably result in some very
loose interword spacing. Conven-
tional automated and semiautomated
typesetting systems have tended to
use short extensions of the join line
between appropriate pairs of Arabic
script characters to fill out the text and
close up the interword space. This
practice is based on one of the tradi-
tional methods of adjusting the length
of a word, but in an automated en-
vironment it tends to introduce a hard
horizontal rule into a script that is
otherwise gently curvilinear.

A far more satisfactory system is to
introduce alternative long-letter forms
into appropriate positions, particular-
ly at word end. Unlike the hyphen,
which is usually felt to be an unfor-
tunate necessity in typesetting, alter-
native long forms actually add to the
aesthetic appeal of an Arabic script
text, as long as they are not used too
often. ■

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Diodes. On Burning Mirrors. The Arabic
Translation of the Lost Greek
Original. Edited, with English trans-
lation and commentary by G. ].
Toomer. Sources in the History of
Mathematics and Physical Sciences I.
Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1976.

Ghosh, P. K. 'An Approach to T/pe
Design and Ifext Composition in In-
dian Scripts." Computer Science Depart-
ment Report No. STAN-CS-83-965.
Stanford University April 1983.

Hyder, S. 'A System for Generating
Arabic/Farsil Urdu script." Informa-
tion Processing, vol. 71. Amsterdam:
North-Holland, 1972, pages
114 4-1149.

Knuth, D. E. T E X andMETAFONT: New
Directions in typesetting. Digital Press
and the American Mathematical
Society, Bedford, MA, and Pro-
vidence, RI, 1979.

Knuth, D. E. The T E X Book. Reading,
MA: Addison-Wesley, 1984.

MacKay, P. A. Setting Arabic with a Com-
puter. Toronto: Scholarly Publishing,
pages 142-150. 1977.

The T E X Users Group. See TUGboat,
a newsletter published for the T^X
Users Group by the American Math-
ematical Society, Providence, RI.

Tired of dBase?

"I created ALPHA because I
was tired of fighting dBase
to make it do what I
wanted."

"I wanted to use my existing
.DBF files, so I made ALPHA
compatible."

"I decided the price had to
be reasonable: $89.00."

ALPHA is a product de-
signed by a professional, for
professionals. It incorporates
the easy syntax of C with
features you've always
wanted in dBase.

Things like a fast B-tree ,
data structure, an on-screen
forms editor, character
graphics, color, and trans-
portability between oper-
ating systems.

Unlike dBase's interpreter,
ALPHA checks all your code,
not just the sections you use
most. It also protects your
code, because ALPHA
comes with its own com-
piler! Now you won't need
to spend additional hun-
dreds of dollars for a dBase
compiler!

Best of all, ALPHA can
read dBase .DBF files! No
conversions are necessary.
ALPHA even automatically
distinguishes between
dBase II and III files. It can
also access Lotus 1-2-3,
Symphony, and Framework
data files.

ALPHA comes with its
own full-screen, powerful
editor too. ALPHA has 1 1 8
built in functions including
dollar/cents arithmetic and
string processing.

ALPHA was written by
Marc J. Rochkind who was
one of the designers of the
Programmer's Workbench
for UN IX and the Edix/
Wordixword processor. His
knowledge and experience

have produced a database
language that is exception-
ally easy to learn and use,
powerful and compatible,
and fairly priced.

For $89.00, why not give it
a try? In addition, the price
includes SOPHCO's famous
technical support.

ALPHA works on the IBM-
PC series and compatibles.
It is also available for UNIX
and Xenix (call for specific
systems), and PC/IX.

Call 800-922-3001 today,
in Colorado 303-444-1 542.

SOPHCO, INC.

PO Box 7430
Boulder, Colorado 80306

dBase is a trademark of Ashton-Tate.

Inquiry 306

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 219

Look at what we're plugging now.

Plug-in Teacs.

We offer a full line of PC compatible components to increase your floppy
storage, to add Winchester drives, or to include a streaming cassette back-up.

Our FD-55 Series, half-height, low power, 5% -inch floppy disk drives are
the world-wide standard of excellence with over 3 million in service to date.
A quick and easy way to double your capacity

Our MT-2st Kit is all you need to plug-in a streaming cassette back-up
system. With 90 ips performance, you can store up to 20 megabytes of back-
up incredibly quick.

Our PS-5250 subsystem is a completely self-contained,
self-powered add-on that includes a 20 megabyte
Winchester drive and a 20 megabyte
streaming cassette back-up.

With Teac, adding on more
storage capacity is an
open and shut case. . , 4

.

inquiry 327

•uilt To Fanatical StandarckTE AC

5 UTER • iONTEBELLQCA 90640

lidwesu 5329 (801)532-2111

26-0303 ©'*»

TEXT PROCESSING

POETRY
PROCESSING

by Michael Newman

The concept of artistic freedom takes on new meaning
when text processing handles the mundane tasks of prosody

For over a year, Michael Newman, Hillel
Chiel (a researcher at Columbia Medical
School), and Paul Holier (a programmer and
analyst for PaineVJebber) have been develop-
ing The Poetry Processor: Orpheus A-B-G
The software is not yet commercially available,
but we are pleased to share Michael Newman's
thoughts on poetry processing and a module
of Paul Holzer's code that shows off some of
the new application's capabilities.

THE PROPERTIES OF a medium can
have a decisive impact on the nature
of what the medium conveys. Poetry
began in an oral bardic tradition. It
was newsy, folksy, evocative of the do-
ings of great heroes. It had to be ac-
cessible to folk encountered at a
roadside as well as pleasurable to
more educated people met at court.
There was no great emphasis on in-
tricate forms, on how the poem
looked on a page, because the page
was not where the poem resided. The
poem was voice-resident, ear-active.
When Gutenberg invented movable
type he did more than spring the
Bible. His invention ultimately pro-
vided a watershed, an opportunity for
the consolidation of language itself —
and Shakespeare jumped on the op-
portunity. He reconfigured poetry,

bringing together history, tragedy, and
comedy under its roof. And, by cast-
ing poetry as theatre, he popularized
it immensely.

Poetry in print became more per-
manent, less permutable; more visual,
less aural. In this century, with the
development of free verse, the poem
has become almost a visual object,
broken up and spread all over the
page. There is even concrete poetry,
which makes a fetish of typography.

Another world that makes a fetish
of typography is software, specifical-
ly the largest part of software: word ,
processing. Software is about as per-
manent as print because you can
always get a printout, but it is much
more permutable. And, above all, it
is interactive.

So what will be the impact of this
revolutionary new medium on the
oldest, most interactive, program-
matic, musical, and image-provoking
form of human speech? And what will
be the impact of poetry on software?

Classical poetic forms— such as the
sonnet, the villanelle, the sestina— are
natural-language programs, algo-
rithms. The sonnet is a set of instruc-
tions specifying 14 lines of iambic
pentameter; a line of iambic pentam-

eter contains five iambic units (feet).
An iamb is a two-syllable unit with the
accent on the second syllable.

Poetic algorithms have more in
common with programming than their
algorithmicness and use of powerful
syntax. Poems involve iteration: Not
only do iambs repeat and five-beat
lines repeat, but ending-sounds
repeat (rhyme in a sonnet), whole
lines repeat (refrains and rhymes in a
villanelle), words repeat (ending
words in a sestina). Individual letters
repeat in alliteration. This repetition
is something poets count, and some-
thing poetry readers see and hear. If
poets can count these things, so can
a computer. If readers see and hear
these things, so can the computer
user— in an enhanced way.

Poems also involve two other cor-
nerstones of computer science: recur-
sion and conditionality. Every sonnet
written refers to others of its kind. It

[continued)
Poet-biologist Michael Newman was a protege
of W. H. Auden, ]ames Watson, and Albert
lehninger. He is a contributing editor of The
Paris Review and the author of the best-
selling 1977 Fotonovel, Grease. He can be
contacted at POB 372, Hancock, NH
03449.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 221

POETRY PROCESSING

is virtually impossible to write a son-
net without reference to the work of
Shakespeare and Keats and Millay.
And every line in a given sonnet is
written with a hyperenhanced con-
sciousness of all the other lines (and
words and parts of words) in that son-
net. In a form such -as the villanelle,
which repeats a pair of rhyming lines
over and over again in different syn-
tactic and semantic contexts, the
recursion is patently manifest.

Conditionality? Anyone who's ever
rhymed knows the meaning of condi-
tionality: You may not write this line
unless is rhymes with that line. If it
does you can say anything you want-
providing it also maintains the
rhythm, stays in line with the themes,
and ends when it's supposed to.

Conditions? Poetry has all you'd
ever want to deal with: Whatever you
were planning on talking about, make
sure you know rhyming words that
deal with it, and be prepared to in-
tegrate your chosen themes with the
themes brought into the poem by the
denotations and connotations of
rhyme words you hadn't planned on
using. Be prepared to jettison some
meanings you were planning on in-
cluding to leave room for the images
developed by the way these words
hook up. Maybe plan on using the jet-
tisoned meaning in another poem.
You're writing a sonnet? Fine, lead up
to a dynamite punch-couplet, then
use it as the repeating lines of a
villanelle. Work the jettisoned mean-
ings into the villanelle. You may still
have some left over, which you could
now work into a terzanelle and
perhaps a nice pantoum. Perhaps
you'd like to cap it all off with a
sestina. No need to set up all those
alphabetical looms— the computer
will take care of the looms. You just
keep weaving.

With computer programs there's a
point to all those conditions. What, a
twentieth-century person might be ex-
pected to ask, is the point of all these
poetic— or more properly, prosodic—
constraints? To answer that question,
we should define prosody and do so
in an up-to-date, if possible scientific,
way.

Prosody, according to Erik R.
Kandel's classic textbook, Principles of
Neural Science, is "the musical intona-
tion of speech." Prosodic modification
of semantic structures occurs, says
Kandel, in the prosodic part of the
brain's text-editing anatomy, located
in the right brain. When there is a le-
sion in the left brain, it produces what
is called an aphasia. When there is a
lesion in the right brain, neural
science calls it aprosodia.

It would follow, then, that a person
commencing to measure out and
sound meaningful statements (to do
prosody) would of necessity be rout-
ing sugar-laden brain blood into pro-
sodic right-side cell circuits. And thus
a program that induces a user to use
more and more measure and rhyme
on meaningful statements would be
a program that induces a user to feed
more and more blood and sugar to
neural circuits in the right brain— and
more and more calcium ions to neural
terminals to facilitate more and more
release of more and more neurotrans-
mitters from more and more neural
cells (see also my letter "Plasticity Ex-
plained" on page 14, Popular Comput-
ing, June 1984). If the program were
interacting with very young people, it
might be promoting blood flow and
enhancing neurotransmitter synthesis
among otherwise dormant neurons in
both propositional and prosodic left-
and right-brain linguistic areas, caus-
ing new neural circuits to be con-
structed, perhaps bridging the hemi-
spheres, perhaps facilitating integra-
tion of the neocortex, perhaps facili-
tating evolution.

Neural scientists will not find these
to be farfetched notions, considering
the things we've learned about cal-
cium in the past few years only At the
very least, we poets know, prosodic
practice will continue delivering en-
dorphins of a peculiarly spectacular
vintage to mental pleasure centers-
put there, without doubt, to ensure
that the special practices that
stimulate the restrictive pleasures of
verse will be conserved. Poetic forms
have been conserved over much time
by all the great poets for good and
universal reasons largely forgotten in

this century, if in no other.

It seems very likely that the function
of poetry has always been to route
blood and calcium ions this way— that
poetry is a tool for evolution of more
than the brain's linguistic product, but
of the brain's linguistic nature as well.
It is possible that poetry in print has
always been limited in how effective-
ly it can catalyze this evolution; and
it is possible that poetry in an interac-
tive electronic medium may finally be
coming into its own.

"Poetry," said W. H. Auden in "In
Memory of W. B. Yeats," "makes
nothing happen. It exists in the valley
of its saying, where executives would
never want to tamper." But if the valley
of its saying is the corpus callosum,
that Great Divide between the
cerebral hemispheres, and if the say-
ing of syntactic circuits constitutes
construction of a physiological and
subsequently anatomical bridge over
the divide, well then Auden's lines of
print are true only of print.

Poetry makes cerebral integration
occur in the physical world through
the properties of information organi-
zation. In that sense of being genera-
tive, poetry is just like genes. In an-
other sense, poetry must activate
genes— in the brain cells it awakens
and reorganizes. And this capacity for
integrating and reorganizing the
brain's structure must be at the root
of poetry's much-touted, perennial
propensity for healing the mind and
soothing the soul.

It's my belief that we inherit
neuroses, which are like embedded
programs, from family and society.
These programs must have a certain
amount of power over us, possibly
measurable in the number of cells in-
volved. I think in terms of blowing
away 10-cell neuroses by building
100-cell poetic structures. In real life,
as an example, it took 400 sonnets to
get me over a divorce. I know if I'd
written them in prose, that prose
would have quickly begun dwelling on
bad things and getting me mad. But
the rhyming became a game, and
soon I was above cavil. The rhyme
made for its own logic, whose pur-
pose transcended the merely human

222 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 83

POETRY PROCESSING

motivation that prompted the effort.
When you get higher principles than
love and hate off the ground with a
formal procedure, they call those prin-
ciples art.

The poems interacted with the peo-
ple who received them in a very
focused way, like software. Relative to
the computer world, I mention this
because I know there is a lot of
divorce. Wouldn't it be nice if there
were a way of dealing with intense
feelings without getting mad? A way
that took advantage of an engineer's
command of systems? There is a way.
Poetry has always been natural-lan-
guage programming, has always had
this enhanced province. It just took
the advent of the computer to shed
the kind of light— coherent light, like
the laser light necessary to reveal
holograms— needed for the percep-
tion of poetry's ultimate holistic
nature.

What specifically, then, can software
do for poetry? In what way may the
practice be made more interactive
and, to really make something hap-
pen, more widespread? lb answer
these questions it is necessary to
speak about a specific program that
Hillel Chiel, Paul Holzer, and I have
been developing for the past year. It
is called The Poetry Processor, but I
will speak of poetry processing as a
general concept (see the text box
"Machine Reading of Metric Verse" on
page 224 for a discussion of one of
the application's modules).

One of the nice things about pro-
ducing software at this early stage of
its development is that one has the
opportunity to develop a general con-
cept before anyone else has got a
hold of it, and perhaps setting a trivial
standard (like a limerick generator).
Marketing general-concept software
can be less pleasurable than design-
ing it because innovation causes con-
fusion in the racks— but hardware
evolves so rapidly that existing
avenues of distribution can't sell
enough of it unless new general ap-
plications come along and bring new
kinds of users into a saturated mar-
ketplace.

This situation is radically different

from the situation in book publishing.
Books never change and have no
need for innovation. A manuscript
could have an unprecedented syntax
and never get it across to anyone with
the power to make a book of it. A
manuscript is a book like the seashells
whose indecipherable patterns
Thomas Mann comments on in The
Magic Mountain— the intricate patterns
must mean something, but only to
their creator.

Mann was wrong, too. Modern
biology has deciphered all sorts of
seemingly indecipherable natural
code. And modern software has
made it possible for an innovator to
be sure that someone is interacting
with proffered syntactic structures.
You don't need to know how a son-
net works to read it, but you do need
to know how to use software. Soft-
ware users are plain kept more honest
than book readers. We are much more
interactive linguistically. But our
cultural subtext is thus far quite
shallow and mechanistic. We have
much to learn from the poets.

Like many valid applications, poetry
processing came about first as a solu-
tion for its designer. Although I've
published many poems and have had
poems in major anthologies, I'd never
been able to put out a book because
I could never decide on a table of con-
tents. That was because I wrote
poetry on many topics, in many forms.
There were poems addressed to
neurophysiologists, which weren't for
geneticists or kids. There were poems
about basketball, which weren't for
basketball haters. There were poems
for computer users only. There were
equally worthy poems whose pur-
pose was but to make a damsel blush.
Which to play up front in the table of
contents? How to title the book?

If the book were for biologists, I'd
want to play up the big words, be-
cause these are buzzwords of biology.
But I wouldn't want to turn away kids,
because they mattered to me as much
as biologists. Certainly I wouldn't want
to turn away the damsels.

The solution, I decided, would be a
relational database, a random-access

(continued)

The Universal

Maclnker(s) "
are here

Re-ink any Fabric

ribbon automatically

for less than

5<P

Now one Universal Cartridge

Maclnker (UC) re-inks all fabric car-
tridges and one Universal Spool
Maclnker (US) re-inks all spools. We
have Maclnker(s) dedicated to
specialized cartridges, zip pack, har-
monica etc. Over 1000 printer brands
supported. Use your Maclnker to re-
ink your dry, fabric cartridges (for
less than 5 cents in ink) and watch the
improvement in print-out quality. Our
new, residue-less, lubricated, dot
matrix ink yields a darker print than
most new ribbons. Or get any of our
basic ink colors: brown, blue, red,
green, yellow, purple and use
Maclnker to create and/or Re-ink
your own colored cartridges. We
have uninked or colored cartridges
for the popular printers and ribbon
re-loads for any printer. Operation is
•extremely simple & automatic with
new, twin drive electric motor that
supports CW and CCW rotating car-
tridges. A good quality fabric ribbon
of average length can be re-inked
almost indefinitely. In our tests one re-,
inked Epson* 80 ribbon has outlived
the estimated life of the print-head!!
We receive consistent & similar feed-
back from our customers. As of
August 85 we have' over 40,000 MAC
INKER(s) in the field, in. 5 continents
(220 V motors available). Maclnker
fUC) is $60.00. Cartridge drivers are
$8.50/ea. We still have our first
gene ration, dedicated Maclnker(s)
for most popular printers. Prices start
at $54.95 with most units below $60.00.
Maclnker has been reviewed, ap-
proved and flattered in most
magazines and even in the NEW
YORK TIMES and the CHICAGO SUN
TIMES.

Cfiimputer
Friends

6415 S.W. Canyon Ct.

Portland, OR 97221

(503) 297-2321

Order toll free 1-800-547-3303

or ask for free detailed brochure.
Dealers inquiries welcome.

*EPSON is a trademark of EPSON CORP.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 223

POETRY PROCESSING

table of forms and topics that would
fish out poem titles according to what
a given user wanted to read. The user
could scroll down a list of topics and
pick, say, basketball. Then the user
could go to a list of forms and find
which forms were available on the
subject of basketball. Then the user
could choose from these and find out
the titles. The poem could be in the

program, or there could be a refer-
ence to a page in a book.

Similarly, a poetry-oriented indi-
vidual could scroll down the forms,
pick "sonnet," and see what topics
were available in a sonnet package.
The book to be sold with the Orpheus
B software contains Orpheus C, about
600 poems, in a dozen forms, on a
great many topics. There are several

kinds of something for just about
everyone that reads.

As my database of titles came into
being on Holzer's Sanyo IBM PC clone,
1 began to think of how else to popu-
larize the poetry game by facilitating
its conversion into a new medium.
What else belonged in the database?

A rhyming dictionary was the first
thing 1 thought of, when I got around

Machine Reading of Metric Verse

A computer can definitively scan a
line of poetry for its stress pat-
tern principally in one of two ways: (I)
an algorithm can deduce the syllabic
structure and the stressed syllables
from analysis of the letters that make
up the word, or (2) the computer can
look up every word in a dictionary
database that holds the syllabification
and accentuation of every word. The
lookup method requires a large data-
base, and the algorithmic approach is
complex and requires a deep analysis
of English phonetics and spelling.

One of the features of a poetry pro-
cessor is that the poet-user can specify
the meter of every line of a poem (see
photo A). For example, the string
.-/.-/.-/.-/.-/ represents iambic pentam-
eter. Dots (.) indicate an unstressed syl-
lable and dashes (-) represent a
stressed one. The slash (/) indicates the
end of a foot, the basic metric unit. The
first line of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18

shall I comPARE thee TO a SUMmer's
DAY?

is an example of a line of iambic pen-
tameter. The stressed syllables are in
uppercase.

After writing a poem, users might re-
quest a metric scan of the poem. I will
describe here a method fordoing this
that is not based on one of the two
general solutions I mentioned in the
first paragraph. Instead, the processor
will break each word into its syllables
and then redisplay each line, with each
syllable in uppercase or lowercase ac-
cording to the position of the dots and
dashes in a user-specified metric form.
So. were Shakespeare trying to com-

by Paul Holzer

pose trochaic pentameter, with the
metric pattern -./-./-./-./-./. the processor
would reply with

SHALL i COMpare THEE to A sum-
MER'S day?

He would read this to himself, trying
to put the stress on the uppercase
syllables. Noting the rhythmic clumsi-
ness, he might rewrite his line as
follows:

To a summer's day I shall compare thee

and the processor would respond:

TO a SUMmer's DAY i SHALL com-
PARE thee.

Sounds better!

The main task for the computer is to
break each word into its syllables. The
algorithm is based on a systematic ap-
plication of what appear to be the
general rules by which English words
break into syllables. Of course, there
are no fixed rules, as evidenced by the
fact that different dictionaries give dif-
ferent syllabifications for the same
word.

The following is a simple version of
the algorithm:

1. Break the word up into a sequence
of alternating vowel and consonant
groupings. Thus microcomputer becomes
micro computer. Wherever there is
a vowel or group of contiguous vowels,
there will be a syllable. We need only
assign the neighboring consonants to
the syllable on the right or to the
syllable on the left.

2. If the first vowel group has a conso-
nant group to its left, then assimilate
this consonant group to the vowel

group. This leads, in our example, to
microcomputer.

3. If the final vowel group has a con-
sonant group to its right, then assimi-
late this consonant group to the vowel
group. We now get microcomput er.

4. For the remaining unassigned con-
sonants, do the following:

. a. If the consonant stands alone, at-
tach it to the following vowel. Thus
we get mi cr ocompu ter.

b. If there are two consonants, split
them. We get mic ro com pu ter.

c. If there are three consonants, then
i. If there is a doubled consonant,
split the pair; thus apply becomes
a ppl y and finally ap ply.

ii. If there is no doubled conso-
nant, but the first of the three con-
sonants is n, r, or [, then split be-
tween the second and third con-
sonants.

iii. In all other cases, split between
the first and second consonants.

Before applying this algorithm, how-
ever, we must preprocess the initial
string of letters in order to take into ac-
count certain peculiarities of English
orthography:

1. Final e is silent (with certain excep-
tions); treat it as a special consonant.
Thus compute becomes compu te, then
compute, and finally compute.

2. Translate many two-letter sequences
into special single consonants, e.g.. sh,
th, gu, qu. and ck.

3. Identify common suffixes. For exam-
ple, the algorithm applied to blameless
would yield blameless and then
bla me less. However, when less is re-
moved as a suffix, then the e in blame

224 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

POETRY PROCESSING

to thinking of the program as some-
thing for me to use— the relational
table of contents was so the user could
access my work. The program was
originally to have been just a floppy
solution to my table-of-contents
dilemma. But you don't get that in-
volved in a software application with-
out elaborating and generalizing. In
that way software is very much like'

poetic forms. You use it for the sake
of using it. It generates its own kind
of trance. Poetry and programming,
once you look at them in context
were just made for each other.

Marriages like this one, made in
heaven, often are so because they are
marriages of convenience. One of the
impediments to formal verse writing
is the inconvenience of having to

make repeated book accesses for
rhymes, just when the form has
prompted some involvement. You
stop and look and lose something.
That's one reason people have tried
to do without forms. But that's throw-
ing out the baby with the bathwater.
You don't stop measuring and sound-
ing things out, and you don't abandon

[continued)

would be recognized as silent, yielding
blame less.

4. Identify some prefixes. For example,
if en is recognized as a prefix, then enact
becomes en act, rather than e nact.

It seems to be impossible to come up
with a reasonably small set of rules and
preprocessing steps to guarantee cor-
rect syllabification of all words. Two ex-
amples will illustrate some of the in-
herent difficulties:

1. Compound words: The algorithm will
not detect the silent e in snake within the
compound word snakebite unless the
fragment bite is recognized as a word
or treated as a suffix. Avoiding the
problem would require either exten-
sive word or prefix table lookups.

2. Successive vowels in different
syllables: In reach, the ea is a single
vowel sound, and the algorithm would
treat it correctly. In react, we pronounce
the e and a separately and the correct
syllabification is react. Were the
algorithm modified to isolate re as a
prefix, it would treat react correctly, but
turn reach into re ach.

Where ambiguities can arise, the best
approach is to formulate a rule that
leads to the smallest number of cases
requiring table lookups for resolution.
The present algorithm is not perfect,
but it produces a readable, if not
dictionary-perfect, syllabified word 95
percent of the time.

I have provided a Pascal program
that implements the syllabification
algorithm and illustrates how The
Poetry Processor "reads" a user's
poem according to a user-specified
metric scheme. Editor's note: The Microsoft
Pascal source code and executable version are
available from BYTEnet Listings, telephone
(617) 861-9764. as SCANPOEM.PAS and
SCANPOEM.EXE. The executable version re-

quires any MS-DOS or PC-DOS machine]
To run the program, prepare two files.
TESTPOE must contain the lines of
poetry. You can write TEST.POE as a
text file with each line of the poem on
a separate line. A second text file.
TESTFRM. should have a line contain-
ing a string of dots (.) and dashes (-)
indicating the accentual scheme that
each line of poetry is supposed to
follow. Slashes indicating the end of a
foot are optional.

As an example, a Shakespearean son-
net (iambic pentameter) will have a
TESTFRM file consisting of 14 lines of
.-/.-/.-/.-/.-/. Each line in TESTFRM must
end with an asterisk. After editing the
TESTFRM and TESTPOE files, you can
run the program by entering its name,

SCANPOEM. The computer will "read"
the poem, printing in uppercase the
appropriately stressed syllables.

Note that the program is a prototype
version of the algorithm. It will not han-
dle text with capital letters, apostro-
phes, or punctuation, so be careful not
to include these features in TEST.POE.
When using this demonstration pro-
gram, you will undoubtedly find that
some words are not properly syl-
labified.

Paul Holier (140 West \6th St.. Apt. 3W.
New York, NY 10011) is a financial analyst
and programmer for PaineVJebber \nc. He has
a B.A. in philosophy from Princeton Univer-
sity and an M. A. in applied mathematics from
City University of New York.

flNFl nU*ff2 BIT'-PH MONT* jg&fFS Bfftf#f6 9UIW7

flit blak wrisaeet StafcN F»t Tyts: B7; ft ii «m okn

Use u bdtspxe far accntu! I'm*

»d a U dfafice .- i*i , .- napes* EiUr S ii first cil

;-. trtdm -.. iactal far siUatic lite.

eu - ponde* .-. aapai r adi Eater i sr i te iM i m

,. jrraic -.- MHifxer 2 stresses or sjUiiles,

eurssr vitaia
Hit :;..:;=■..::- *
to ad af

line rflfta* Hwe refrain wra*

.-A-/.-/.-/-/
.-/.-/.-A-/.-/
.-A-/.-/.-/.-/

.-/.-A-/.-/.-/
.-A-/.-/.-/.-/

Photo A: Setting the prototype of The Poetry Processor for iambic pentameter.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 225

POETRY PROCESSING

"Playing" with THe Poetry Processor

Nine-year-old Dougal McQueen of
Dunedin. New Zealand, was the
first child to try the Orpheus program.
First, he chose these rhymes and stuck
them vertically on the right of the
screen: freed, rhyme, speed, and rime.
I suggested he not rhyme "rhyme"
with "rime" (Auden would not have ap-
proved), but he insisted. Then, having
followed the rules of the game as far
as they went, he played it his own free-
style way. He wrote

it wert koala you sope freed
yuiop pot deede awert rhyme
for dead people yuiop baskiop speed
yuiop astee yuiop wert wexs wertyuiop
rime

Examining the poem, I saw that the
"wert" and "yuiop" were sequences
straight off the QWERTY(UIOP) key-
board! He was playing cadenzas. It
sounded like Old English. The only real
words, besides the rhyme words, were
"koala" and "dead people."

His next go. he chose the rhymes
"amazing, auto, nothing, ego."

I pointed out that they were feminine
endings and didn't rhyme properly, but
again he insisted. He wrote:

ling is nothing amazing
kine might do nothing auto
Yuiop is named because wert nothing
By mercury the fist planet Ego.

By his second try. the poem was full
of words that meant something, and
the third line explained his use of
yuiop. The fourth line he started to say
"first planet" and thought better of
making too much sense. The last line
is something amazing.

His sister. 12-year-old Amelia, was
even more amazing. She wrote

aamoves lose bacollide
back ok accolade
can't be oxide
live in a barricade

Note how "bacollide" (a neologism
worthy of Joyce), "accolade" and "bar-
ricade" seem to flow into one another,
how "bacollide" seems to back into "ac-
colade." Okay!

The rhyming dictionary presents
each user with virtually all rhyming

possibilities; the machine makes it
possible for everybody to have the
same size effective vocabulary! The pro-
gram prompts them to reach into that
vocabulary.

How they pick what is where the indi-
viduality will arise. Even as the begin-
nings of this new writing process ex-
cite me now, the extent to which com-
ing generations will exploit the oppor-
tunity promises to ease my old and
perhaps even middle age.

Amelia didn't need to know exactly
what those words meant in order to ex-
ploit their musical interactive potential.
Having used them, she will be sure to
find out what they mean. Links we plan
on making with syllabified electronic
dictionaries will make "Definitions in
Stride" possible as well.

When I first used even a limited
rhyming dictionary (see photo B), I felt
for the first time the freedom from hav-
ing to use brain sugar in an inefficient,
alphabetical, usually monosyllabic
search for rhyme. Instead of that sem-
piternal turn-off. I felt the masterful
turn-on of leisurely running the high-
light bar through all possibilities and
making carefully premeditated selec-

tions. Selection is a higher-order pro-
cess than mere recall; poetry is a more
pleasurable pursuit than trivia.

The freeing of the imagination to
select from all possibilities has to be
equal in importance to the achieve-
ment of calculators setting us free of
low-order counting and allowing us to
evolve to more creative estimation and
projection. Moreover, the human dimen-
sion of this liberation is what will finally
set the machine loose in the home,
where people live their personal lives—
and where mere productivity and
diversion have not penetrated.

Math is at the heart of hardware
design, but the soul of software is lan-
guage. Poetry as a hit in software is not
unlikely at all. Scrabble, slow and
un inventive, crossword puzzles, with no
freedom at all. still reign, because they
are word games. Software makes it
possible for poetry to be the next word
game, the first and now the last.

User-friendliness, moreover, is a red
herring. Dougal didn't know how to
type, but to get at that rhyming dic-
tionary, he quickly mastered WordStar-
type commands. Poetry is the carrot at
the end of the joystick.

HEtMFi FEE4W JBtfR Btt=PF4 FWWJS MK«fft *KTO3T

eed creed freed nisdeed ear

agreed decreed greed teed ell

bleed exceed Reed precetd

breed feed indeed reed

1 k'w, iterated b* tetaii
2 11*19% ex RifciW, decreed'

3 Tiat is tbe truth all prosodies express;

4 Tbat is tbe frtit that sprouts fro* everj seed.

Photo B: Using The Poetry Processor rhyming dictionary.

226 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

POETRY PROCESSING

the traditional formal procedures—
you just speed them up to where you
don't lose momentum keeping up
with the demands of artifice. Those
demands are prompts put there to in-
crease momentum.

The sestina demands you use six
words seven ways. That gets more out
of you on them than ever before. It's
the setting up of the sestina that slows
you down. That friction can be re-
moved by having the computer set up
any six words in a sestina format. That
eliminates loom craft from the poet
menu of chores and allows for the art
of word weaving. The idea is not to
do free verse, but to free up formal
verse. Sestinas, if optimally set up, can
be written freely. TYue freedom comes
only under pressure, anyway. It's not
the same thing as mere liberty, or
license.

Whenever 1 have rhymed in the
past, I would stop writing to go fish
out rhymes from memory, usually go-
ing down the alphabet, coming up
with mostly one- and two-syllable
words. If the form were rhyme-
intensive, like a villanelle, I'd go to the
book to make sure I had a cushion of
extra rhymes. If I used the book I'd be
drawing from three-syllable words as
well, and I would find the ending in
more spellings than I could pan off
the top of my brain.

These rhymes went on lists that
always got thrown out. Why not use
the computer to keep and file the
lists? It was an obvious application.
The only reason publishers hadn't
jumped on it was that there didn't, at
first glance, seem to be much of a
market. And why not have a master
list of rhymes in the computer? Then
a drawback of poetry in print could be-
come a feature of poetry in a electronic
setting. Throw those switches a few
more times, make enough features of
drawbacks, and you will have a valid
application.

Stanford students Evan Kirschen-
baum and Tim Torgenrud, majors in
computer science and literature re-
spectively, delivered Holzer a 20,000-
word rhyming dictionary, which has
been compressed to about 60K bytes
and will be usable separately as a

RAM-resident database. Searches for
lists of all metric units (such as iamb
and trochee) will be featured as "Foot
Finder."

If poetic forms were considered as
psychoactive outlines, then the text-
editing aspect of the program could
be considered a sort of ultimate out-
line generator. I mention that genre
of product because it, like RAM-
resident databases, is one of the few
spin-offs of text editing to establish a
market, and both have done very well,
in ways that nobody envisioned. The
appropriateness of the application for
the powers of the medium have
begun to define a market.

Before designing the text editor
proper, I chose the dozen or so most
algorithmic poetic forms I knew, put
them on a scale of ascending difficulty
(more conditions, more iterations,
more recursions), and began writing
poems in these forms on a broad
range of topics. I developed enhanced
("turbo") versions of some forms, with
added rhyme. I would take a 4-line
poem, use its lines as the last lines of
four IO-liners, and come out with a
44-liner, then add more rhyme and re-
write certain lines so you could see
clearly how many more images oc-
curred when harmonic pressure on
meaning is increased by added
rhyme.

To exemplify this, 1 wrote a series of
poems for small children called Or-
pheus.jr. It started with some stanzas
of half-rhymed common measure and
went on until a fully rhymed hymnal
stanza got up enough steam to de-
velop. I then took that hymnal stanza
and used it to write a 44-line glose (a
Portugese song form). Here is the
hymnal "Texte" and part of the first
10-line stanza of the glose glossed
from it:

Poems are diaries that sing
And keep the love alive;
Poems are lives where everything
That lives gets to survive.

Any old thing can creep into
A thing that isn't rhymed;
A thing that isn't measured out
Cannot be too well-timed.

The appropriateness
of the application
for the powers of the
medium have begun to
define a market

Then, to show how added rhyme can
quickly enhance the imagery, I made
the first line rhyme with the third:

Any old thing can creep into
A thing that isn't rhymed;
Without music it's all a zoo,
A circus pantomimed.

Adding rhyme brought a zoo into
the picture, which lead readily to a cir-
cus. This caused the poem to become
something of a bestiary— a theme
always popular with children. (For ex-
amples of children interacting direct-
ly with The Poetry Processor, see the
text box "'Playing' with The Poetry
Processor" at left.)

Holzer first created dynamic walk-
throughs of the designated forms in
order to learn them himself and to
prepare for creating a master algo-
rithm, with which a user could specify
the parameters of any form— by enter-
ing how many lines, metric units, re-
peating words, endings, phrases, or
lines were desired— and custom-tailor
a form-template to be written on.

We ended up with the Prosodic
Spreadsheet, a split screen on whose
left side one could enter prosodic
variables and on whose right side the
template being created could be
viewed. We made it so the form could
also be sounded out— so the user
could hear as well as see a rhythmic
matrix before even considering what
words to pour into it. In a sense, these
templates format the user's sensibility;
that is, they provide a preapprehen-
sion of how the utterance will be con-
figured.

An upshot of this development is

(continued)

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 227

POETRY PROCESSING

that recently a Vh -year-old interacted
with the program, just hitting a but-
ton and listening to the skeleton of a
limerick. I had known that women dis-
served by software thus far were a
market for electronic poetry, that old
people with their wealth of experi-
ence were a sizable potential consti-
tuency, that hackers with their power-
ful syntactic abilities and estranged
spouses needed a way of communi-
cating effectively in natural lan-
guage—but I hadn't known the game-
likeness of prosody could appeal to
someone that young.

Neither did I know, when I started
out, that I was going to be designing
a piece of integrated software. But
before we knew it, we had databases,
a text editor, and a spreadsheet. By
now poetry itself was finding expres-
sion entirely in the terms of integrated
software. All that was missing was a
telecommunications feature, and the
utility here was not hard to envision.

One of the worst things about the
world is the way the practice of poetry
isolates people in it. Here we have the
most interactive form of linguistic
activity— insofar as one person inter-
acting with natural language— but the
interaction with other people is
negligible. As an example, I had a
poem in The Poetry Anthology: 1912-

1977 (Houghton Mifflin, 1978) after 10
years on the job. Ten years later I've
had no feedback. Print moves much
too slowly for poetry's interactive
nature. The isolation 1 used to feel was
an artifact of print, not poetry. The un-
commerciality of my work was also an
artifact of an inadequate medium.

How I envied the hackers, with their
product-specific and language-specific
networks. All that close-knit interac-
tivity, I thought, but it's all about
machines. If only it could be about
human events.

Of course it can be about human af-
fairs, and will be. Our Instant An-
thology will link sonnet hackers with
each other. It will encourage sonnet
hackers to make villanelles out of their
sonnets' best heroic-couplet punch
lines (and to make sestinas out of the
most frequently occurring words in a
linked set of prosodic modules). Feed-
back can be instantaneous and
specific. Competence of execution—
not social connections— will be the
criterion of inclusion. Many more peo-
ple than ever before will be able to
write poetry competently and many,
many more like-formatted, compati-
ble minds will know about it. To this
cohesion can accrue much.

Software today has barely scratched
the surface of its ultimate applica-

tions. Games that do not simulate
nature, productivity without creativ-
ity—these are passing phases in the
infancy of an industry. This is not so
obvious to marketing people, espe-
cially those from the world of print;
theirs is a world of diminishing cate-
gories, of lower and lower common
denominators. It is a world where it
seems safer to compete with a host
of similar products through familiar
licensing and promotional tactics than
to try to shoehorn something un-
precedented into the racks in an un-
familiar way.

I've learned to regard this sluggish-
ness of institutional response as an
opportunity for individual entrepre-
neurial feats. It is obvious to those of
us outside marketing dogma's false
conditionalities that language and its
media have always evolved to accom-
modate human purposes and to facili-
tate human evolution. And it is clear
to those of us committed to this proj-
ect that poetry is the sempiternal and
now supercharged crucible of linguis-
tic evolution, that poetry can be many
things to many people— natural-lan-
guage programming, turbo word pro-
cessing, personal debugging, the ulti-
mate word game. It has always been
with us, and will in the future be with
us in force. ■

CfiCODONICS
' We Bring the Future into Focus

CLEVELAND CODONICS, INC.

18001 Englewood Dr. • Cleveland, Ohio 44130

(216) 243-1198

Tektronix, Wyse Technology, Codonicsare registered tradenames

228 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 68

CHAIRMAN
OF THE BOARDS

THE 2400 bps MODEM FOR IBM-PCs & COMPATIBLES.

Plug the new USRobotics Microlink 2400™ modem
board into any slot in your IBM PC or compatible — to
give your computer full 2400 bps data communications
capability.

The Microlink 2400 can communicate twice as fast as
1200 bps modems. (It transmits a double-spaced
page of text in as little as 7 seconds!) Faster com-
munication means lower phone bills and increased
productivity. The modem can even redial busy numbers
until it gets through — freeing you for other tasks

The Microlink 2400 is CCITT
and Bell compatible, and re-
sponds to the full AT com-
mand set. You can use it with
any of the popular telecom-
munications software pack-
ages including Telpac™ by
USRobotics, Crosstalk™, PC

Help Screens Talk ™ and Sma rtCOm™ , n

addition to the features you'd expect, our new, im-
proved Telpac enhances Microlink 2400's performance
with such features as easy-to-use windows, multilevel
security, and log files to monitor your outgoing calls.

Microlink 2400 displays call status
and length on your screen, as well as
operational parameters, including the
command set and S-register settings.
The modem's auto-answer feature
automatically adjusts from 2400 bps
to 1200 or 300 bps to match the
speed of incoming transmissions.
What's more, a powerful equalizer assures
peak performance on every call.

HIGH RELIABILITY
ND LOW COST. TOO.

Microlink 2400's low chip
count results in ex-
ceptional reliability —
backed by a full 2-year
manufacturer's warranty. But
best of all is the price — only
$699! And if you prefer an external
modem, our new Courier 2400™ will deliver the same
superior performance at the same affordable price.
We set out to build the best modems on the market.
Now, they're ready. Microlink or Courier.
Being faster is important. But being best was our goal.

Courier 2400'*

The Intelligent Choice
in Data Communications.

Inquiry 342
USRobotics, Inc. 8100 McCormick Blvd., Skokie, IL. Phone: 1-800-Dial USR. In Illinois: (312) 733-0497 Telex: 650-186-3130

You would think when IBM needs
EPROM Programmers they would choose
the best and the most expensive.

They don't. They only choose the best.

GTEK.

MODEL 7956 (w/RS-232 option) $1099

MODEL 7956 (stand alone) $ 979

GTEK's outstanding Gang Programmer with
intelligent algorithm can copy 8 EPROMS at a
time! Use the 7956 in a production environ-
ment when you need to program a large num-
berof chips. Programs all popular chips through
the 27512 EPROMS; supports CMOS EPROMS
through the 27C256; supports EEPROMS
through the X2864A; supports Intel's 2764A &
271 28A chips. The 7956 will also program
single chip processors.

MODEL 7228 $ 599

GTEK's 7228 has all the features of the
71 28, plus Intelligent Programming Algorithms!

It supports the newest devices available through
51 2K bits. The 7228 programs 6 times as fast
as standard algorithms. It programs the 2764 in
one minute! Supports CMOS EPROMS through
the 27C256; supports EEPROMS through the
X2864A; supports Intel's 2764A & 27 1 28 A chips.
Supports Tektronics, Intel, Motorola and other
formats.

MODEL7128 $ 429

The 7128 has the highest performance-to-

cost-ratio of any unit. It supports the newest
devices available through 256Kbits.

MODEL 7324 $1499

The 7324 has a built-in compiler. It programs
all MMI, National and Tl 20 & 24 pin PALS. It
has non-volatile memory and operates stand-
alone or via RS-232.
MODEL 7322 $1249

Same as Model 7324 but operates only via RS-232.
MODEL 731 6 $ 749

This PAL PROGRAMMER programs Series 20 PALs. It has a built-in PALASM compiler.
MODEL 705 $ 299

68705V3, U3, P3 PROGRAMMER.

EPROM, PROM & PAL

PROGRAMMERS

— These features are standard from GTEK —

Compatible with all RS-232 serial interface ports • Auto select baud rate • With or without
hand-shaking • Bidirectional Xon/Xoff • CTS/DTR supported • Read pin compatible ROMS • No
personality modules • Intel, Motorola, MCS86 Hex formats • Split facility for 16 bit data paths •
Read program, formatted list commands • Interrupt driven— program and verify real time while
sending data • Program single byte block or whole EPROM • Intelligent diagnostics discern bad
and/or unerased EPROM • Verify erasure and compare commands • Busy light • Complete with
Textool zero insertion force socket and integral 1 20 VAC power (240 VAC/50Hz available) •

UTILITY PACKAGES

GTEK's PGX Utility Packages will allow you to specify a range of addresses to send to the
programmer, verify erasure and/or set the EPROM type. The PGX Utility Package includes
GHEX, a utility used to generate an Intel HEX file.

PALX Utility Package-for use with GTEK's Pal Programmers-allows transfer of PALASM®
source file or ASCII HEX objectcodefile.

Both utility packages are available for CPMf MS-DOS? PC-DOS', R ISIS W and TRSDOS*
operating systems. Call for pricing.

CROSS ASSEMBLERS

These assemblers are available to handle the 8748, 8751, Z8. 6502, 68X and other microprocessors.
They are available for CPM and MS-DOS computers. When ordering, please specify processor
and computer types.

ACCESSORIES

Model 7128-L1.L2, L2A

(OEM Quantity) $259.

Model 7128-24 $329.

Cross Assemblers CPM-80 $200.

MSDOS; CPM 86 . . . $250.

PGX Utilities Call for pricing

PALX Call for pricing

Erasers DE4 $80; PE14T

C25 $349; C50

U/V Eraser DE-4

Cables: Serial or Parallel

8751 Adapter

8755 Adapter

48 Family Adapter

$129
$599
$ 80.
$ 30.
$174.
$135.
$ 98.

RUN CPM

SOFTWARE ON

YOUR IBM OR

IBM COMPATIBLE

\c

If you are a CPM
user who wanted to
convert to MS-DOS
or PC-DOS but
didn't because
you wouldn't
abandon or
rewrite your CPM
programs, now you
can convert without
losing or rewriting a single CPM program!

GTEK's CPEmulator emulates Z-80 code and
Televideo or Lear-Seigler terminals. The CPEmulator
copies to and from 54 CPM disks and the serial port.

Now all the work you accomplished in CPM is
still as valuable with your change to MS-DOS or
PC-DOS. And you won't see any difference when
you run your CPM programs on your IBM or IBM
compatible!

GTEK's incredible CPEmulator is just $199!

JUST RELEASED!!! Need more speed? With
GTEK's SPEED KIT you can run your CPM pro-
grams much faster. The Speed Kit includes NEC
V20 or V30 processors. With your CPEmulator,
just $99.00!

Call GTEK's CPM Hotline...
1-601-467-9019

NEW PRODUCT FROM GTEK!
MODEL 8014 PROGRAMMABLE
PARALLEL PRINTER SWITCH

f' . Finally, for everyone

using multiple parallel

\ printers, GTEK makes avail-

>" sty' ^» t , able a reliable and afford-
able programmable parallel
printer switch. With it's pro-
grammable printer port, you
can connect your IBM PC
or other computer with a
single parallel port, to from one to four printers '
at one time.

Each port is selectable by sending GTEK's 8014
a simple escape sequence. The 8014's microprocessor
allows Epson-type graphics codes to pass unchanged.
By cascading 8014s, you can access as many printers
as you need!

The 8014 will prove invaluable to you . , . use
one computer to print invoices, serial number
labels, disk labels, and plain paper . . . without
changing the form each time. There are hundreds
of applications for GTEK's 8014 Programmable
Parallel Printer Switch.

And with the Model 8014-32k or 8014-128k, you
can spool and switch your printer output.

Model 8014 (switch only) $279.00; Model
8014-32k (32k buffer) $339.00; Model 8014-128k

(128k buffer) $399.00.

Development Hardware/Software
P.O. Box 289, Waveland, MS 39576
601/467-8048; telex 315-814 (GTEK UD)
, INC.
GTEK, PALASM, CPM, MS-DOS. PC-DOS, IStS, TRSDOS. & CPEmulator are registered trademarks.

G

TEK

230 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 149

TEXT PROCESSING

THE LITERARY
DETECTIVE

by Jim Tankard

Use your computer
to identify an unknown author

THE POWER TO play literary detec-
tive has been granted to all of us by
the invention of the microcomputer.
The literary detective tries to identify
an author purely by examining
samples of writing. Some of the prob-
lems facing the literary detective
might be trying to determine whether
a famous author really wrote the
works attributed to him or her, which
of two likely candidates actually wrote
a disputed document, or who wrote
some famous but anonymous papers.

Researchers have taken various ap-
proaches to the problem of identify-
ing the unknown author. T. C.
Mendenhall used a word-length fre-
quency approach to explore the con-
troversy over whether Shakespeare
actually wrote the plays attributed to
him. Mendenhall counted the lengths
of 400,000 words from Shakespeare
and 200.000 words from Francis
Bacon. He then drew a frequency
curve for word lengths of each author.
The curves from Shakespeare and
Bacon did not match up very well,
although a curve for Christopher
Marlowe agreed with Shakespeare's
about as well as Shakespeare did with
himself.

G. Udny Yule used a different ap-

proach—the counting of the frequen-
cy of certain nouns— to try to deter-
mine whether Thomas a Kempis or
Jean Charlier de Gerson wrote The
Imitation of Christ. This work is some-
times said to be second only to the
Bible in its importance in Christian
literature, but there has been some
controversy about who wrote it. Yule
looked at the frequency of use of par-
ticular nouns in The Imitation and in
other works by the two possible
authors. He found that a number of
classes of nouns were used at a much
higher frequency by Gerson than they
were in either The Imitation or a Kem-
pis's other works, and this led him to
conclude that a Kempis was the true
author.

Alvar Ellegard used a similar ap-
proach—one based on counting the
frequencies of certain major types of
words— to determine the authorship
of the Junius letters. "Junius" was the
anonymous author of a series of let-
ters that appeared several times a
month in the London Public Advertiser
from January 21, 1769, to January 21.
1772. The authorship of the letters,
which were often critical of public of-
ficials, was a subject of frequent
speculation at social gatherings

around London. The most likely
author on historical grounds was Sir
Philip Francis, but it was also sug-
gested that the letters might have
been written by such candidates as
Edmund Burke or Edward Gibbon.
Ellegard concluded on the basis of his
statistical analysis that the author was
indeed Francis.

Frederick Mosteller and David L.
Wallace counted the frequency of
"minor function words" to determine
whether Alexander Hamilton or James
Madison was the author of 12 dis-
puted Federalist papers. The Federalist
papers were published anonymously
in New York papers in 1 787-88 under
the name of "Publius." Not until the
French edition of a book containing
the letters was published in 1792 was
it publicly announced that they were
the work of Alexander Hamilton,
James Madison, and John Jay. Later,
both Hamilton and Madison claimed
authorship of 12 specific papers.
Hamilton left a note in a friend's

(continued)
]im Tankard (3003 Cherry lane, Austin, TX
78703) wrote his first computer program in
1963 while taking a FORTRAN course at
Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He teaches jour-
nalism at the University of Texas at Austin.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 231

LITERARY DETECTIVE

bookcase before his duel with Aaron
Burr, and the note listed the authors
of the various "Publius" papers.
'IWelve papers that Hamilton assigned
to himself in this list were listed in
Madison's personal copy of the
papers under Madison's name. These
papers— numbers 49 to 58. 62, and
63— are the disputed papers. In con-
trast to the major word types used by
Yule and Ellegard, Mosteller and
Wallace found that minor words such
as "a," "an," "by," "to," and "that"
made good discriminators. Mosteller
and Wallace, on the basis of their
analysis of the use of minor function
words, assigned all 1 2 of the disputed
Federalist papers to Madison.

In a radically different approach,
William Ralph Bennett Jr. has shown
that the frequency of use of letters
alone can serve to distinguish be-
tween samples of text. The frequen-
cy of use of single letters is often suf-
ficient to differentiate between dif-
ferent languages, such as English and
Spanish. The frequency of letter pairs,
or digrams, is often sufficient to dif-
ferentiate between authors. There are
26 times 26, or 676, possible letter
pairs. Bennett reports a study using
letter-pair frequencies that was able
to distinguish the works of Heming-
way Poe, Baldwin, Joyce, Shakespeare,
cummings, Washington, and Lincoln.

Stylistic Fingerprints

To stick with the detective analogy a
minute more, a writer leaves distinc-
tive traces on his or her writing that
can be thought of as stylistic finger-
prints. Some of these traces could ap-
pear at the level of letter frequencies
or letter-pair frequencies. One advan-
tage of looking for stylistic idiosyn-
crasies at this level is that they are
probably not even conscious parts of
a writer's style. But they create a lot
of points at which two authors could
differ; for example, with a letter-pair
analysis, there are 676 points of
comparison.

William Paisley of Stanford Univer-
sity has referred to the small but
telltale characteristics of a communi-
cator's style as "minor encoding
habits," and he has shown that they

exist in painting and music as well. as
in writing.

I wrote some programs for the
Apple He that would allow me to try
the single-letter frequency and letter-
pair frequency approaches to author
identification. Then I attempted to test
each approach by seeing if it could
correctly identify the author of each
of the 12 disputed Federalist papers.
The identifications would be con-
sidered correct if they agreed with
Mosteller and Wallace's.

Breaking the problem down, I
needed programs that would read
text from a file, perform the single-
letter and letter-pair counts, normalize
the counts to a standard sample such
as 1000 letters or 10,000 letters, and
compute a difference index that
would summarize the differences in
frequencies for any two samples of
text.

I expected the programs for the
single-letter analysis to be fairly easy
to write. One program would read in
the letters from a file, a letter at a time,
and count them by incrementing an
element of an array corresponding to
the character's ASCII number. Since
there are only 26 letters, this would
only require a one-dimensional array
with 26 elements. The second pro-
gram for the single-letter analysis
would take the frequency counts from
two different samples of text and
compute a difference score.

In contrast, I expected the letter-pair
analysis programs to be much more
difficult to write. Not only would they
require a two-dimensional array with
26 elements in each dimension, but
also I anticipated that it was going to
take some tortuous programming to
count the letter-pair frequencies.
Finally an obvious solution occurred
to me. I only had to modify the pro-
gram for single-letter frequencies so
that it remembered the previous let-
ter while it was counting the present
one, and it would be able to count let-
ter pairs. This was one of those in-
stances where you really see the
power of the computer: Through a
simple algorithm the computer would
be able to do with great speed and
absolute accuracy a task that would

be maddening for a human coder.
The second program for the letter-pair
analysis would take the frequency
counts for two different text samples
and compute a difference score, and
it would be similar to the second pro-
gram for the single-letter frequency
analysis.

The Programs

I wrote four BASIC programs for the
Apple He. TEXT GOBBLER 1 reads
text from a file, counts the frequen-
cies of single letters, normalizes them
to a sample of 1000 letters (not count-
ing spaces or punctuation), allows you
to print out a table listing the results,
and lets you store the frequencies in
a file for later analysis. A sample table
printed by TEXT GOBBLER I appears
in figure I. FREQUENCY ANALYZER
I takes any two frequency data files
created by TEXT GOBBLER 1 and
computes a difference index based
on the differences in frequencies of
use of every letter.

TEXT GOBBLER 2 reads text from
a file, counts the frequencies of letter
pairs, normalizes them to a sample of
10,000 letters, allows you to print out
a table listing the results, and lets you
store the frequencies in a file for later
analysis. A sample table printed by
TEXT GOBBLER 2 appears in figure
2. FREQUENCY ANALYZER 2 takes
any two frequency data files created
by TEXT GOBBLER 2 and computes
a difference index based on the dif-
ferences in frequencies of use of
every letter pair.

The FREQUENCY ANALYZER pro-
grams compute the difference index
for two samples by taking the dif-
ference between the frequencies of a
given letter (or letter pair) in the
samples, getting the absolute value of
that difference, and summing those
values for all 26 letters (or, for letter
pairs, for all 676 letter pairs). The
smaller this index is, the more the two
samples are alike. The larger this in-
dex is, the more the two samples are
different. Bennett suggests a slightly
different index, but I did not use his
because it involves comparing each
sample with a sample representing

(continued)

232 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

tomPUTER WAREHOUSE

CALL TOLL

"HP 1-800-528-1054

FREE ^P^^- fHARDWA RE [

Air Express Shipping

See Details Betow

PRINTERS

Anadex All Models Call

Brother All Models Call

Cannon Laser Printer $2099

Citizen MSP-10 S255

MSP-15 $349

MSP-20 S319

MSP-25 $489

Datasouth All Printer Models Call

Diablo D-25 $549

635 $1079

Other Printer Models Call

BEST PRICES '/

Charge for Bank Cards

$158
$158

EPSON

All Printer Models Call

Juki 6000 $ 1 69

6100 $349

6300 $679

NEC 2010. 2015. 2050 $629

3510. 3550 $989

3515 $1009

3530 $935

8810,8830,8850 $1 379

P2. P3 Call

Elf 360 $399

Elf 370 $389

OKIDATA

All Printer Models Call

Panasonic 1091

1092

1093

KXP3151

$235
$349
$429
$409

Toshiba P1340 Parallel orSerial
P351 Parallel

DISKETTES

Maxell MO-2 Plastic Box (Qty 100) .
Sony MD/2 (Qty 100)

MONITORS

Amdex All Monitors Call

NECAII Monitors Call

Princeton Graphics Call

Taxan All Models Call

Zenith All Models Call

VIDEO TERMINALS

AltosSmart III $599

IBM 3161 & 3163 Series Call

Qume QVT Green 101 $299

QVT Amber 101 $314

Wyse 30 $299

50 $419

75 $559

Wyse 85 $579

Wyse 350 $859

Zenith z-22 $455

Z-29 $559

Z-49 Call

MODEMS

AT&T

4000 External $309

Anchor Automation

Anchor Express $229

COMPUTERS

Compaq All Models . . .

Zenith Computer
Products

SAVE up to 50%

Z-158 All Models Call

Z-138A11 Models Call

Z-148 All Models Call

Z-171 Call

Z-200 Call

DISK DRIVES

Alpha Omega Turbo 10 $529

Turbo 20 $529

Turbo 30. S729

Haba Macintosh 800K $409

Iomega

Bernoulli Boxes for IBM Call

Bernoulli Boxes for Macintosh Call

Paradise Macintosh Hard Disk. , Call

BOARDS

AST Advantage $389

Six Pack Plus $219

Everex Boards Call

Hercules Color Card $1 49

Graphic Card $299

Intel

Above Boards Call

Paradise Modular Graphic 06-1 $259

Five Pak $ 1 1 9

Quadram

Quadlink $325

Tec Mar Graphics Master $445

Captain No Memory $155

PLOTTERS

Enter Sweet-P600 $749

Epson Hi-80 ...... Call

KEYBOARDS^

Keytronics 515)1 A| IS. $159

5151 Jr. ^BBHJlHi S1 79

Other Models M**- jCH S. . Call

STAR MICRONICS

All Printer Models Call

HAYES

All Modems Call

Silver Reed

EXP400 Parallel

EXP500 Parallel or Serial .
EXP550 Parallel or Serial
EXP770 Parallel or Serial.

$205
$279
$389

Prometheus All Models Call

US Robotics Courier 2400 $389

Password 1200 $189

Microlink 2400 $389

COPIERS

Canon iff P©)»

Canon PC-10 $509

Canon PC-14 $649

Canon PC-20 $719

Canon PC-25 $939

XEROX

1020w/Toner $1099

SANYO

SFT600 $609

SOFTWARE

Gem Collection ...$115

Gem Desktop $29

Gem Draw Call

IBM PC and 100% Compatibles

SPREADSHEETS

Lotus 1-2-3 Call

Multiplan • $114

Spreadsheet Auditor 2.0 $83

LANGUAGES

C Compiler (Microsoft) $235

Fortran Compiler (Microsoft) $209

Macro Assembler $89

Pascal Compiler (Microsoft) $ 1 78

Turbo Pascal 3.0 $35

Lattice C Compiler $249

Run C Interpreter $85

Quick Basic $59

Turbo Tool Box $28

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Harvard Total Project Manager $269

MicrosoftProject Call

Super Project $182

Timeline 2.0 $249

COMMUNICATIONS

$19
$94
$78
$94

CompuServe Starter Kit .

Crosstalk XVI

PFS Access

Remote

INTEGRATIVE SOFTWARE

Enable 1.1 $329

Framework II Call

Smart Software System $459

Symphony Call

TRAINING

Flight Simulator $30

Typing Instructor $29

Typing Tutor III $29

GRAPHICS

Chartmaster $206

PC Paintbrush -$62

Turbo Graphix Tool Box $28

Diagram Master 190

Dr. Halo.. $55

Energraphics $165

Energraphics w Plotter Option $214

Microsoft Chart Call

PC Draw $203

PC Draw Light Pen $ 104

PC Paint w Mouse $1 23

PC Mouse w Paintbrush $107

PFS Graph $78

Printmaster $30

Signmaster $135

WORD F>R0CE550 AS

Lightening $52

Leading Edge Word Processor $50

Leading Edge W/P withSpell & Mail $ 1 05

Microsoft Word 2.01 $229

Multimate 3.3 $206

PFS:Write $78

Wordstar w/Tutor $169

WordstarPro Pack $239

| Supercalc3(Ver.2.1). .Call

Word Perfect (Ver.4.1)$199

Wordstar 2000 $239

Wbrdstar 2000 Plus . . $285

UTILITIES

1 DIR

Copy II PC

Norton Utilities 3.1 ....

Sidekick

Sidekick (Unprotected) .

Sideways

Superkey

Printworks.

$48
$19
.$49
$28
$43
$31
$35
$36

MONEY MANAGEMENT

Dollars & Sense w/Forcast $95

Tobias Managing Your Money $95

DATA BASE MANAGEMENT

Cornerstone $255 £

dBase II Call 5

dBaselll Call 3

Nutshell $50 I

PFS:File $78 o

PFS:Report $70 s

Quickcode $139 -

QuickReport $139 |

Extended Report Writer $80 o

Think Tank $93 %

Clipper $355 2

Knowledgeman II $299 «

Knowledgeman Upgrade Kit $ 1 52 S

Reflex $52 °

| R:Base5000 $335"

Sidekick- Superkey (Bundle) $65 Many other titles available.

Inquiry 90 for MS-DOS Products. Inquiry 91 for all others.

Order Line: 1-800-528-1054
Order Processing: 602-224-9345

GOmFHJTCR
WAREHOUSE

2222 E. Indian School Rd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85016
602-954-6109

Store Hours: Mon-Fri 10-5:30

Saturday 9-1
Order Line Hours: Mon-Fri 7-5:30

Saturday 9-1
Order Processing Hours: Mon-Fri 10-3

Product shipped in factory cartons with manufacturers warranty. Please add $6.00 per order for UPS ground shipping on orders up to 10 lbs. Orders 10 lbs.
and under you pay for ground service, receive air service at no extra charge. Available on orders 1 1-30 lbs. $17 for air service. Prices & availability subject to
change without notice. Send cashier's check or money order... all other checks will delay shipping two weeks.

VISA ' ^H ^S

■SSJjJUi CWF-1285

LITERARY DETECTIVE

"standard English," and it is not clear
what you should use as the sample
of "standard English."

Trying It Out

I compared the disputed Federalist
papers with a sample of Hamilton's
text and a sample of Madison's text
to see which they resembled most.
The first Federalist paper known to be
written by each man was the "known"
sample. These papers were number I ,
by Hamilton, and number 10, by
Madison. The Madison paper, at
18,087 characters, was about twice as
long as the Hamilton paper, at 9399
characters. This should not affect the
results, however, since frequencies are
normalized to a sample of 1000 for
single letters and to a sample of
10,000 for letter pairs.

The results for the single-letter
analysis are presented in table 1. and
the results for the letter-pair analysis
are presented in table 2 . In each table,

FILENAME

DISPUTED49

NUMBER OF

CHARACTERS

9981

NUMBER OF

SPACES

1763

LETTER

ACTUAL

NORMALIZED

A

557

69

B

137

17

C

248

31

D

272

34

E

1095

136

F

184

23

G

131

16

H

437

54

I

583

73

J

16

2

K

16

2

L

296

37

M

181

23

N

604

75

658

82

P

241

30

Q

22

3

R

465

58

S

469

58

T

835

104

U

234

29

V

103

13

w

125

16

X

19

2

Y

103

13

z

1

Figure 1 : Sample output from TEXT
GOBBLER 1, an Applesoft BASIC
program for discovering the author of an
unknown text. Dividing the actual count
for a letter by the actual count of all the
letters and multiplying by 1 000 gives the
normalized count (number per 1000
letters) for that letter.

the analysis assigns 9 of the 12 dis-
puted papers to Madison. This can be
compared with the results of the
Mosteller and Wallace study, which
assigned all 12 to Madison.

The explanation for the difference
in results probably lies in the size of
the text samples that were used as the
known samples in the two studies.
Mosteller and Wallace went outside
the Federalist papers to get more text
from Madison because he had fewer
known papers in the set than
Hamilton. They ended up examining
about 70,000 words of known text,
divided about equally between the
two authors.

My study used one Federalist paper
from each author as the known sam-
ple. This involved about 6000 words
of known text, with one-third from
Hamilton and two-thirds from
Madison. A larger sample of known
text in the present study might have
produced a more dependable

measure of the style of each author.

Another reason the letter frequen-
cy analyses may not have been 100
percent correct in their identifications
is that the Hamilton-Madison dis-
crimination is a particularly difficult
one. The writing style in The Federalist
is formal, and the writers may have
even been attempting to write alike.
Certainly it is a more difficult author-
recognition test than distinguishing
lames Joyce, who made up his own
words, from more standard writers of
English or from writers in other coun-
tries and in other times.

Perhaps even more puzzling was
that the single-letter frequency
analysis was as effective in dis-
criminating between Madison and
Hamilton as the letter-pair frequency
analysis. This finding means there was
a pronounced difference between
Hamilton and Madison in the frequen-
cy with which they used certain in-

[continued)

FILEWME

DISPUTED49

NUH8ER OF CMRACTERS

998

NIH8ER OF SPACES

1763

FIRST LETTER SECOND LETTER

A

8

c

D E

F

6

H

I

J

K

L

M N

p

Q

R

S T

U

V

u

X

Y

z

A

20

25

27

20

31

4

83

14 126

1

21

93

50 101

11

11

2

9

8

4

80

4

10

30

4

7

1

12

19

C

34

6

42

55

29

1

4

67

2

2

39

15

2

D

6

1 72

2

36

2

2

9

2

6

5

7

2

E

4?

60

78 12

12

16

2

21

1

24

25 153

21

32

12 172

93 14

26

6

24

6

F

6

12

7

11

11

31

14

1

2

1

6

17

24

1

24

16

2

1 2

19

11

4 1

7

H

60

305

57

5

32

1

1 24

1

1

I

19

4

59

19 26

10

20

2

14

16 161

103

7

32

83 117

2

27

1

J

10

2

7

K

11

2

1

2

1

L

40

1

32 70

4

37

37

15

10 7

10

4

1

39

:

M

25

12

86

21

11 1

21

6

10

11

N

34

39

82 46

14

54

1

21

1

1

11

19 6

31

1

4

67 105

9

7

1

6

4

12

6

7 2 123

1

5

1

11

24 203

7

47

78

30 34

68

30

20

1

P

45

72

7

11

37

35

21

50

2 1

16

Q

27

R

41

1

4

16 147

2

4

2

46

4

1

11 21

45

5

5

30 45

6

2

21

S

11

1

63

1

16

52

10

1

30

7

1

35 87

27

2

1

T

26

62

356 127

7

19

81

25

42 10

35

6

21

U

1?

15

14

11 25

2

10

10

44

11 20

4

6

31

26 44

y

10

96

16

6

u

4

31

45

24

4

34

2

2

X

2

1

5

2

9

4

Y

1

2

Z

1

Figure 2: Sample output from TEXT GOBBLER 2, showing the frequencies of letter
pairs in a disputed Federalist paper.

234 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

That's not unusual.

Most business software is designed to fit the
average business. So if your business isn ; t average,
most software doesn't fit.

Fortunately, you have an alternative.

The SBT Accounting Software Library.
The business software you can change to fit your
business.

It's modular. So you can buy only the modules
that best fit your business. And if the modules
aren't a perfect fit, you can customize them. In just
a few hours.

Because unlike other software companies, we
give you the source code (the key to changing our
software) absolutely free. What's more, changes
are simple to make because our software is written
in easy-to-use dBASE.

And if the idea of changing software pro-
grams makes you uneasy, not to worry. There's
a consultant near you who can do it for you.

Our software runs with dBASE III or
dBASE II* So not only do you get the power and
flexibility of those best -selling database manage-

ment programs, you can use any computer that
runs dBASE.

The SBT Accounting Software Library.

Now you can run your business like nobody's
business but your own.

Call today for our demo disk and brochure.
(415) 331-9900.

THE SBT ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE LIBRARY.

d Professional

Time & Billing

$395

dOrder

Sales Order Processing

$195

d Invoice

Billing/Inventory Control

$195

dStatement

Accounts Receivable

$ 95

dPurchase

Purchase Order

$195

d Payable

Accounts Payable

$295

d Payroll

Payroll/Labor

$395

dLedger

General Ledger/Finance

$395

dAssets

Asset/Depreciation

$195

dProject

Project/Job Accounting

$395

dBackup

Menu/Backup

$ 65

sbt

CORPORATION

Three Harbor Drive
Sausalito, CA 94965
(415)331-9900

Does your software

run like

everybodys business

but your own?

Accounting Software Library
in dBASE H7dBASE III®

Compiled versions also available. dBASE III and dBASE II are registered trademarks of Ashton-Tate, Inc. Copyright 1985, SBT Corporation.
Inquiry 391 for End-Users. Inquiry 392 for DEALERS ONLY. FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 235

LITERARY DETECTIVE

dividual letters. I had not anticipated
this, and it is a difficult finding to
explain.

Using the Programs

These programs are designed to work
on an Apple He and an Apple Dot
Matrix Printer. The programs are
TEXT GOBBLER I, FREQUENCY
ANALYZER I. TEXT GOBBLER 2, and
FREQUENCY ANALYZER 2.

The text samples you want to
analyze should each be placed in a
separate text file. The program is writ-
ten so this can be done with a word-
processing program such as Apple
Writer. This makes it easy to look at

the files and to make corrections in
them. The files can also be created
with the MAKE TEXT program in the
Apple He DOS Programmer's Manual or
on the DOS 3.3 "Sample Programs"
disk. The only stipulation is that you
must place an asterisk (*) as the last
character of the text file. (If you do
not, the program will not know that
it is at the end of the file and will pro-
duce an error message.)

One of the big problems in using
the programs is keeping all the files
straight. For each text sample you are
dealing with, you will have three files:
one containing the text sample itself,
a second containing the single-letter

Table 1 : Difference index for single-letter frequencies in the disputed Federalist
papers, as generated by FREQUENCY ANALYZER I .

Disputed Paper

Paper No. 1

Paper No. 10

Number

(Hamilton)

(Madison)

Assigned To

49

58

79

Hamilton

50

98

71

Madison

51

73

52

Madison

52

94

91

Madison

53

77

68

Madison

54

110

105

Madison

55

90

77

Madison

56

92

95

Hamilton

57

88

87

Madison

58

73

72

Madison

62

55

52

Madison

63

71

72

Hamilton

l^ble 2: Difference index for letter-pair frequencies in the disputed Federalist
papers, as generated by FREQUENCY ANALYZER 2.

Disputed Paper

Paper No. 1

Paper No. 10

Number

(Hamilton)

(Madison)

Assigned To

49

2066

2222

Hamilton

50

2494

2490

Madison

51

2357

1953

Madison

52

2291

2239

Madison

53

2069

2154

Hamilton

54

2465

2373

Madison

55

2256

2212

Madison

56

2603

2447

Madison

57

2207

2013

Madison

58

2039

2027

Madison

62

1796

1694

Madison

63

1891

2001

Hamilton

frequencies, and a third containing
the letter-pair frequencies. Since I was
dealing with 14 different text samples,
I found it useful to draw up a table of
the names of all the various files.

If you want to perform a single-letter
frequency analysis on two or more
samples, you will first run TEXT GOB-
BLER I . This program deals with one
text sample at a time. It will ask you
for the name of the file the text sam-
ple is in. Then it will proceed to read
in the text and perform the letter fre-
quency counts. It can take it 10 to 15
minutes to do this on a text of 2000
to 3000 words. The program will ring
the bell on the Apple He to indicate
that it is through reading text. The
program will then give you several op-
tions: printing out a table of the fre-
quencies, storing the frequency data
in a file so it can be analyzed later
with FREQUENCY ANALYZER I, run-
ning FREQUENCY ANALYZER I. and
so forth. You need to store the fre-
quency data in a file and have at least
one other set of frequency data
stored in another file before you can
run FREQUENCY ANALYZER 1.

If you want to perform a letter-pair
frequency analysis on two or more
samples, you go through the same
steps as above except that you use
TEXT GOBBLER 2 and FREQUENCY
ANALYZER 2 instead of TEXT GOB-
BLER I and FREQUENCY ANALYZER
1. TEXT GOBBLER 2 can take quite
a bit longer than TEXT GOBBLER I
because it is searching for 676
elements instead of just 26. A run of
TEXT GOBBLER 2 on a 3000-word
sample might take as long as half an
hour. This program will also signal
when it is through by ringing the bell.
The program then presents you with
the option of storing the frequency
data in files so it can be analyzed
later. In this case, however, the fre-
quency data will be for letter-pair fre-
quencies and it will be analyzed by
FREQUENCY ANALYZER 2.

The programs were written to work
with the Apple He, but it should be
possible to modify them to run on any
microcomputer that uses BASIC. The
principle modifications would be in

(continued)

236 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

S£yco Compute/t JUafiketitng & Consultants

1091.. $233

A#IOM SEIKOSHA

GP550AT (Atari) 222

GP550CD [C-64 222

GP700AT [Atari) 439

GP700AP (Apple) 439

Fl ITE5CO (C-64) 229

C. ITOH

ProWriter 85lOSp+ 349

1550Sp+ 489

StarWriter.... 769

PrintMaster 929

TOSHIBA

P1340 , 469

P351 + ..... 1149

P341P 969

P341S 999

351 Sheet Feeder 529

SAVE k= PRINTERS

CARDCO

32K BUFFER. .(C-64)...

CORONA

LP300 Laser Printer 2686

200361 Toner Cartridge 89

EPSON

FX85 (New) 333

LX80 212

FX185 (New) 464

LX90 (New) 226

SQ20OO (New) 1555

JX80 467

Homewriter 10 193

CR-20-Atari 153

CR-220-C-64 153

DX-10 (New) 207

DX-20 (New) 297

HS-80 (New) 288

LQ1500P 975

LQ1500S 1039

RX-100 356

FX-100+ CALL

CITIZEN

MSP-10 269

MSP-15 -358

MSP-20 337

MSP-25 495

Sheetfdr (10/20) 189

Sheetfdr (15/25) 199

OKIDATA

Okimate 10 179

Okimate 20 CALL

182 214

192 348

193 563

92P 349

93P 56b

84P 645

92 Imaqewriter... 349

"IBM versions afso

BROTHER

HR-15XL-P 359

HR-15XL-S 359

HR-35P... 839

HR-35S 839

2024L-P 949

M1009-P 189

JUKI

Juki 6100 347

RS232 Serial Board ...55

6100 Tractor 119

6100 Sheet Feeder 209

Juki 6300 757

LEGEND

880 188

1080 222

1380 262

1385 296

LEGEND 808 159

DIGITAL DEVICES

16K BUFFER 75

32K BUFFER 89

64K BUFFER 125

DIABLO

D25 549

630 API 1599

630 ECS 1759

D 80 1F 2395

P32 CG-1 699

P38 1749

C 150 999

DX-35 (NEW) CALL

AP-80 CALL

SG-10 $208

PANASONIC

1091 233

3131 (NEW) 269

1092 373

1093 426

3151 Letter 426

4K Buffer 65

SILVER REED

EXP400 249

EXP50O 295

EXP550 399

EXP770 749

STAR MICRONICS

SG-10 208

SG-15.. 373

SD-10.... 336

SD-15 , 442

SR-10 483

SR-15 583

SB 10 595

Power Type 303

SG-10 C-64 (NEW) CALI

MONITORS

MODEMS

TAXAN

115 12" Greeen Composite ..CALL

116 12" Amber Composite CALL

121 12" Green TTL. .135

122 12" Amber TTL 145

220 14" Color Composite 259

410 12" RGB Hi Res IBM 329

420 12" RGB Super Hi IBM. ...409

440 12" RGB Ultra Hi Res 555

Tilt Stand. - 35

ZENITH

ZVM 122A Amber 75

ZVM 123G Green 75

ZVM 124 Amber IBM 129

ZVM 131 Color 275

ZVM 133 RGB 389

ZVM 135 Composite 449

ZVM 136 Hi Res Color 589

ZVM 1220 95

ZVM 1230 95

ZVM 1240 149

TEKNIKA

MJ-10 Composite 179

MJ-22 RGB 255

AMDEK

300 Green 1 18

300 Amber 128

310 Amber IBM 155

Color 300 Audio 234

Color 500 Composite 369

Color 600 397

Color 700 495

Color 710 569

PANASONIC

DT1300D 13" RGB/Composite ...247
DTM140 14" RGB/Composite ...329

DTH103 10" RGB Hi Res 395

DTS101 10" Composite 175

DT1000G 10" RGB 166

TX12H3P 12" Color 419

TR120M1PA 12" Green 109

TR120MBPA 12" Amber 109

TR122M9P 12" Green IBM 148

TR122MYP 12" Amber IBM ....148

SAKATA

SG 1000 12" Green 99

SA 1000 12" Amber 109

SG 1500 12" Green TTL. ..119
SA 1500 12" Amber TTL. 129
SC 100 13" Color Comp .209

SC 200 13" RGB 389

STS1 Tilt Stand 29

NEC

JB-1260 Green 95

JB-1201 Green 135

JC 1215 Cotor 235

JC 1216 RGB 375

JC 1460 Color 265

X-TRON

Comcolor I Composite Green... 177

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

MAX-12 Amber 185

HX-12 RGB 465

3R-12 RGB 595

US ROBOTICS

HAYES RACAL-VADIC

Paccar* !5nnM 99i Smartmodem 300 139 2400PC 549

Password 1200M 22! , Smanmo6em 12 00 379 9 . n0PA 7gg

Password 1200F 229 Smartmodem 1200B 349 ^ A J 99

Password 300M 139 Smartmodem 2400 599 JJ™* ■ "*

Password 300F 139 Micromodem HE -"35 '200PC ...

Autodial 212A 359 ANCHOR

PCM5. .

.319

\/olksmodem 55

Volksmodem 12 186'

300V 205 1

300PC 199 I

^256: :: ^ fVolksmodem 12 186 . N0VATI0N

s-100 379 TELE LEARNING ibm 300/1200 ms-dos ext. .3f 9

Courier 469 Total Telecommunications IBM 300/1200 CPM-86 ext. . .319

Microlink " "469 ( Cj64 > 29.95IBM 300/1200/2400 erf 529

ToirLr Mc finQ 70 AP ' 250 & 00 Baud APP'e) ■ 69.95 BM 300/1 200/24OD M&OOS . 579

Telpac Ms-DOS 79 |B . 250 fa Baud ,g^ '. 6 9.9plRM MSOOS int 325

DRIVES

INDUS

GT ATARI 215

GT COMMODORE 235

TANDON

*320K °/o V*" Drive 115

MSD

SD1 Drive (C-64)... 229

SD2 Drive (C-64) 469

TYMAC

.MDD-640 3V Apple Drive WOK 289

DISKETTES

DENNISON

ELEPHANT 5V4" SSSD ... 1 1 .99
ELEPHANT 5V«" SSDD ... 12.99
ELEPHANT 5Va" DSDD... 14.99

PREMIUM 5 1 A" SSDD 13.99

PREMIUM 5V4" DSDD 15.99

1

VERBATIM

5V4" SSDD 13 99

5V«" DSDD 19.99

BONUS

5V4" SSDD 9.99

5V«" DSDD 12.99

IBM-PC COMPATIBLE

*QUADRAM

Quad Jr. Exp. Chassis... .519.00
Quad Jr. Exp. Memory.. ..209.00
Quad Memory Jr 209.00

* LOTUS

Lotus 1-2-3 309.00

Symphony 439.00

MICROPROSE (IBM)

F-15 Strike Eagle 20.75

Soto Right 20.75

Hellcat Ace 20.75

Spitfire Ace 18.75

'LEADING EDGE

Nutshell 69.95

LEWP Basic .65.00

LEWP Merge Print 99.00

LE Spell Correction 169.00

TOLL FREE 1-800-233-8760

Iffl Bl

TO ORDER

CALL TOLL FREE

800-233-8760

Customer Service 1 -71 7-327-1 825

or send order to
Lyco Computer
P.O. Box 5088

Jersey Shore, PA
17740

RISK FREE POLICY

In-stock items shipped within 24 hours of order No deposit on C O D orders Free
shipping on prepaid cash orders within the continental US Volume discounts
available PA residents add sales tax. APO FPO and international orders add
S5 00 plus 3% for priority mail service. Advertised prices show 4% discount for
cash, add 4% for MasterCard or Visa. Personal checks require 4 weeks' clearance
before shipping Ask about UPS Blue and Red label shipping All merchandise
carried under manufacturer's warranty Free catalog with order All items subject
to change without notice

Inquiry 1 99

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 237

LITERARY DETECTIVE

the routines in TEXT GOBBLER I and
TEXT GOBBLER 2 that read text from
files. Also, if you do not have an Apple
Dot Matrix Printer, it may be neces-
sary to modify the portions of those
programs that set up the printer.

The next logical step in this kind of
research would be to extend the level
of analysis to trigrams, or sets of three

letters. The problem with doing this
on a micro is that the storage capaci-
ty needed begins to exceed that avail-
able on many machines. A single-letter
frequency analysis requires matrices
with 26 elements. A letter-pair frequen-
cy analysis requires matrices with 26
by 26, or 676, elements. A trigram
analysis requires matrices with 26 by

New Amiga Products From
The Developers of Amiga G,

Amiga C Compiler— $149.95

Everything you need to develop pro-
grams on die Amiga, including a Rill
set of libraries, header files, an object
module disassembler, and sample C
programs.

Unicalc — $79.95 A complete spread
sheet package for Amiga, with die power-
ful features made popular by programs
such as VisiCalc, SuperCalc, and Lotus
1-2-3. Unicalc provides many display
options and generates printed reports
in a variety of formats and print image
files. Suppons 8192 rows of 256 columns,
and includes complete on-line help.

Lattice MacLibrary— $100.00
The Lattice MacLibrary is a collection of
more than sixty C functions enabling you
to rapidly convert your Macintosh pro-
grams to run on the Amiga, this allows
you to quickly and efficiently take
advantage of die powerful capabilities
of die Amiga.

Lattice Make Utility— $125 00
Automated product generation utility
for Amiga, similar to UNIX Make, LMK
rebuilds complex programs with a single
command. Specify the relationships of
die pieces, and automatically rebuild
your system die same way every time.

Lattice

Text Utilities— $75.00 Eight soft-
ware tools for managing text files. GREP
searches for specified character strings;
DIFF compares files; EXTRACr creates a
list of files to be extracted from die cur-
rent directory; BUI ID creates new files
from a batch list; WC displays a character
count and a checksum of a specified file;
ED is a line editor which utilizes output
from odier Text Utilities; SPLAT is a
search and replace function; and FILES
lists, copies, erases or removes files or
entire directory structures.

Lattice Screen Editor (LSE)—

$ 1 00.00 Fast, flexible and easy to learn
editor designed specifically for program-
mers. LSE's multi-window environment
provides die editor functions such as
block moves, pattern searches, and "ait
and paste'! Plus programmer features
such as an error tracking mode and diree
assembly language input modes.

OTHER AMIGA PRODUCTS
AVAILABLE FROM LATTICE:

Panel: Screen Layout Utilities— $195.00

Cross Compiler:

MS-DOS to Amiga C— $250.00

dBCIH:

library of data base functions — $150.00

Cross Reference Generator — $45.00

Widi Lattice products you get Lattice Ser-
vice including telephone support, notice
of new products and enhancements, and
a money-back guarantee Corporate
license agreements available.

Phone (312) 858-7950 T\VX 910-291-2190

INTERNATIONAL. SAIJiS OFFICES:

Benelux: De Vooght. Phone (32>2-720-91 -28. England: Koundhill. Phone (0672) 54675

Japan: Lifeboat Inc. Phone (03) 293-471 1 France: SFL Phone ( 1 ) 46-66-1 1 -55

26 by 26, or 17,576, elements. In any
of these analyses, two matrices have
to be used at one time to compute the
difference index, and each element re-
quires at least two bytes of memory.
So a trigram analysis will require at
least 70,304 bytes, and that is not
even allowing for the disk operating
system or the rest of the BASIC pro-
gram needed to do the analysis. This
exceeds the capacity of a 64K-byte
machine and probably puts a strain
on a 128K-byte machine unless some
memory allocations are changed and
programming is extremely efficient.
A trigram analysis should increase
the sensitivity of the author-recogni-
tion technique considerably. It would
theoretically look at 17,576 variables
on which the two authors could dif-
fer. And it would begin to pick up
three-letter words. These would prob-
ably include still more of the minor
function words that Mosteller and
Wallace found to be such good dis-
criminators. ■

[Editor's note. The programs described in this
article are available (in source code) for down-
loading from BYTEnet Listings. Call (617)
861-9764. The files are GOBBLER.ONE,
GOBBLERTWO. ANALYZER.ONE and
AN ALYZER.TWO. You will need an Apple
We, printer, and Applesoft BASIC.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bennett, William Ralph, Jr. Introduction to
Computer Applications for Non-Science Students
(BASIC). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-
Hall, 1976.

Ellegard. Alvar. A Statistical Method for Deter-
mining Authorship: The ]unius Letters.
1769-1772. Goteborg, Sweden: Elanders
Boktryckeri Artiebolag, 1962.

Mendenhall. T. C. "A Mechanical Solution
of a Literary Problem." The Popular Science
Monthly, December 1901, page 97.

Mosteller, Frederick, and David L. Wallace.
Inference and Disputed Authorship: The
Federalist. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley,
1964.

Paisley. William, J. "Identifying the
Unknown Communicator in Painting,
Literature and Music: The Significance
of Minor Encoding Habits." journal of Com-
munication, December 1964, page 219.

Yule, G. Udny. The Statistical Study of Literary
Vocabulary. Cambridge. England: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1944.

238 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 189

We dorft care
which computer you own.

WfeTl help you
get the most out of it.

X

CompuServe puts a wB

CompuServe is the world's largest
information service designed for the per-
sonal computer user and managed by
the communications professionals who
provide business information services to
over one quarter of the FORTUNE 500
companies.

Subscribers get a wealth of useful,
profitable or just plain interesting infor-
mation like national news wires, home

iformation, communications, Mc

shopping and banMrjg, travel and sophis-
ticated financial data. Plus electronic
mail, national bulletin boards, forums
(special interest groups), and a multi-
channel CB simulator.

You get games and entertainment, too.
Board, parlor, sports, space and educa-
tional games. Trivia and the first online
TV-style game show played for real prizes.

To buy a CompuServe Subscription Kit,

entertainment at your fingertips.

see your nearest computer dealer. To
receive our informative brochure or to
order direct call or write:

CompuServe®

Consumer Information Service. P. O. Box 20212
5000 Arlington Centre Blvd.. Columbus. OH 43220

800-848-8199 In Ohio Call 614-457-0802
An H&R Block Company Inquiry 79

The First International Conference on CD
sponsored by Microsoft Corporation

PLAN NOW TO ATTEND

Be part of this important conference March 4-7th in Seattle. The focus
will be wide-ranging, with a host of key authorities examining current

viders, software developers, hardware, disc, and drive manufacturers.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

William H. Gates, Microsoft Gary A. Kildall, Activenture

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Jane Brown, BRS
Robert Carr, AshtonTate
Peter Cook, Grolier Academic

American Encyclopedia
Stan Cornyn, The Record Group
James DeVries, Laser Video
Stuart B. Flexner, Random House
John Gale, Information

Workstation Group
Stan Honey, ETAK
Philippe Kahn, Borland

International
Kathleen Lane, Dataquest
Leonard Laub, Vision Three
Jan Lewis, Palo Alto

Research Group
Michael Liebhold, Apple Computer
Thomas Lopez, Cytation
Gerald Lowell, Library of Congress
Tom Kelly, 3M Corporation
Alan Meckler, Meckler Publishing
David Mastrandrea,

Hewlett Packard
Rick Meyer, DIALOG
Dominic J. Miccolis, World Book

Encyclopedia
Robert Moes, North American

Michel Motro, VIFI International/

Larousse
Hernan Otano, Smithsonian

Institution, NASM

Microsoft Corporation
10700 Northup Way
Bellevue, WA 98004

MICROSOFT.

Arlin Raedaeke, Reference

Technology
Francois Robineau, Editions

France Image Logiciel
Edward Rothchild, Rothchild

Consultants
David Roux, Datext
Edward Schmid, Digital Equipment

Corporation
Richard Schwarz,

Dun & Bradstreet
George Wallce. McGraw-Hill
Howard R. Webber.

Michael Zibart, Ingram Book

Company
William Zoellick, TMS

Registration price.-
$799 (before Feb. 1);
$899 thereafter

To register, call:

800 323-7616; In California,

818 707-0102

ortslex: 298912 Til UR

For additional information, call:
Min S. Yee, Conference Chairman
or Steve Lambert, Conference
Coordinator
206 828-8080

TEXT PROCESSING

KEYBOARD
EFFICIENCY

by Donald W. Olson and Laurie E. Jasinski

Is the Dvorak layout worth learning!

?

THE STANDARD KEYBOARD, called
QWERTY after the first six letters in
the top row, was developed by C. L.
Sholes in 1872. Because keys were
prone to jamming on early versions
of the typewriter, the QWERTY key-
board was designed with commonly
used letter pairs purposely sepa-
rated—paradoxically, to slow a typist
down.

August Dvorak, a professor of
statistics at the University of
Washington, designed the Dvorak key-
board in the early 1930s. Dvorak was
primarily concerned with efficiency of
speed and movement and with reduc-
ing typing errors and fatigue.

In the home row, Dvorak put vowels
on the left hand and the most com-
monly used consonants on the right
hand. The top row contained the next
most commonly used letters, and the
bottom row contained those least
used. (See figure I for a comparison
of the QWERTY and Dvorak keyboard
layouts.)

Dvorak claimed that 70 percent of
the typing would be done on the
home row and that 3 5 percent of the
most commonly used words could be
typed using only the home row, with
almost no finger motion. This em-

phasis on the home row was hailed
as the revolutionary improvement of
the Dvorak system.

Proponents of the Dvorak system
claim improvements in speed and ac-
curacy ranging from 35 percent to 50
percent for skilled typists. Indeed,
August Dvorak's students regularly
won typing competitions in the 1930s
and 1940s. The reigning World's
Fastest Typist Barbara Blackburn (170
words per minute, according to the
Guinness Book of World Records), is a
Dvorak typist. Considering today's in-
creased use of electronic keyboards,
is the Dvorak layout worth learning?

Finger Travel

Another claim of Dvorak superiority
relates to the reduction of "finger
travel" and, presumably fatigue. In re-
cent interviews, Barbara Blackburn
stated that the fingers of a typist using
the QWERTY layout for eight hours
will travel between 15 and 16 miles,
while a Dvorak typist's fingers will
travel only about 1 mile. Indeed, in
most of the Dvorak-related articles
that we read we found similar
numbers, suggesting that a typist
using a QWERTY keyboard has to
move his or her fingers about 16

times the distance of a Dvorak typist.

The original distance stated in
August Dvorak's 1943 article "There
Is a Better 'typewriter Keyboard,"
which appeared in the National Business
Education Quarterly, is from 12 to 20
miles for a skilled QWERTY typist over
a working day, compared to the
Dvorak figure, which is "a little over
a mile."

This lack of precision makes it dif-
ficult to deduce an exact ratio. How-
ever. Dvorak states further that finger
motions "have been reduced by more
than 90 percent," implying a distance
ratio of 10 to 1 or more.

Adoption of the Dvorak keyboard
was hindered by four factors: its intro-
duction during the Great Depression,

[continued)
Donald W. Olson is assistant professor of
physics and astronomy in the Department of
Physics at Southwest Texas State University.
His research interests include relativity,
cosmology, and distances to the galaxies.
Laurie E. jasinski is an undergraduate
English major at Southwest Texas State
University who works with computers in the
areas of music, astronomy, and literature. The
authors can be contacted at the Department
of Physics. Southwest Texas State University,
San Marcos, TX 78666.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 241

KEYBOARD EFFICIENCY

QWERTY keyboard

00000000000
00000000000
000000000m

Dvorak keyboard

0000000000O
00000000000
00000000000
0000000000

Figure 1: QWERTY and Dvorak keyboard layouts.

government standardization to
QWERTY during World War II, a gov-
ernment report in 1956 that favored
QWERTY over Dvorak for training new
typists, and, most important, the well-
established position of the QWERTY
keyboard in the business world and
users' resistance to relearning.

The Dvorak Revival

In the decade since Dvorak died in
1975, there has been a revival of in-
terest in his system. The Apple lie has
a built-in keyboard switch that con-
verts the keyboard from QWERTY to
Dvorak and back again almost instan-
taneously Separate keyboards with
the Dvorak layout are available for the
IBM Personal Computer, and Dvorak
elements can also be purchased for
IBM Selectric typewriters.

Software conversions that remap
the keyboard layout are available for
the Apple He, the IBM PC family, some
T&ndy models, and the Commodore
64. In addition, several popular pro-
grams that use computers to teach
typing allow students to enter lessons

(continued)

Tkble I: A comparison of finger
typing the sample texts shown in

-travel distance ratio (relative efficiency) for QWERTY versus Dvorak keyboards, based on
the right-hand column.

Ratio =

QWERTY/Dvorak (Inches) Words

Text Used for Test

1.45 =

1818 / 1256

472

The Bill of Rights (Amendments l-X)

1.32 =

1222 /

926

305

Lyrics to "Help!" "All My Lovin," and "In My Life" by the Beatles

1.44 =

1142 /

791

294

Lyrics to "Mr. Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan

1.34 =

945 /

705

280

Genesis I, v. 1-13 (Creation story)

1.50 =

876 /

585

263

"The Gettysburg Address" by Abraham Lincoln

1.39 =

955 /

686

261

Hamlet's "To Be Or Not To Be" soliloquy by William Shakespeare

1.33 =

828 /

621

252

"Stopping By Woods. . " and "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost

1.36 =

1010 /

743

232

"The Raven" (first four stanzas) by Edgar Allan Poe

1.40 =

623 /

445

200

A Tale of Two Cities (opening paragraphs) by Charles Dickens

1.33 =

547 /

410

151

"I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud" by William Wordsworth

1.39 =

9966 / 7168

2710

242 BYTE- FEBRUARY J986

Inquiry 232 for End-Users. Inquiry 233 for DEALERS ONLY.—*

There's a Familar Face
Behind the New Name

NANAO MONITORS, The name is new to the Americto j^cetrThat's because for the first time in
history; a huge new line of computer monitors is avail Bio the US. — factory direct. 26 different
models offered in three series, bringing you a range 9 Hpres broader than any other, Color
resolution from 480 dots x 200 lines up to 720 dots x 4^| ^^nd-Ebusaanning from 15.75 to 24.75
KHz. But the truth is that Nanao has been around for a long time. For over a decade we've supplied
OEM's worldwide, designing and manufacturing monitors recognized for their outstanding
performance and reliability. Now that same quality, selection and value is yours — right from
the source. Nanao. The old standby with a new name.

NANAO

NANAO USA CORPORATION

373 G. Vintage Park Drive
Foster City, California 94404
Phone (415) 341-7055

Distributor Inquiries Welcomed

KEYBOARD EFFICIENCY

in either QWERTY or Dvorak format.
| Editor's note: Apple lie users will notice
two switches just above the keyboard. The use
of the 80140-column switch is obvious, but
the (unction of the keyboard switch probably
requires reference to the Owner's Manual.
According to page 15 of the Owner's
Manual, "Locking down this switch changes
the layout of the keyboard from the standard
arrangement to the Dvorak Simplified Key-
board, which is designed to increase typing
speed and efficiency by locating frequently
used keys in the home-base row. To complete
a permanent conversion the keycaps must then
be rearranged following the diagram on page
16 of the manual. \

Verifying the Claims

Partly as an exercise in programming
and partly to check the 10:1 and/or
16:1 distance claims, we wrote a short
Applesoft BASIC program to study
finger motion as a typist enters a
passage of text. It is a relatively
straightforward task to monitor each
letter as it is received from the key-
board, to infer which finger the typist
used and the location of that finger
relative to its home position, and to
keep running totals of the distance
traveled by each of the eight fingers.
The program accepts uppercase
and lowercase letters, as well as punc-
tuation, math symbols, and most of
the special symbols. After each line
is entered, it is analyzed twice, once
to compute the motions of the fingers
under the QWERTY system and again
to compute the finger motions if the
typist had used the Dvorak layout. Up-
dated distances traveled for finger,
hand, and grand totals are displayed

at the top of the screen for each type
of keyboard.

Our program, DVORAK.BAS, makes
no statement regarding typing speed.
We compute only the distances of
finger travel. We typed 10 passages
with rather surprising results. Al-
though there was some variation from
one selection to another, we found
that the ratio of QWERTY finger-travel
distance to Dvorak distance fell con-
sistently in the range between 1.3:1
and 1.5:1 (see table 1). This is far less
than the ratios of 10:1 or 16:1 that are
often quoted. It is unlikely that this
discrepancy was caused by our choice
of text material, since we had a wide
variety of sources (songs, poems,
speeches, plays, etc.) from different
authors (see table 1).

Defining a "typical" working day is
somewhat arbitrary, but a typist
assumed to be producing 70 words
per minute for 50 minutes of each
hour for 8 hours would type 28,000
words. Using the numbers for finger
travel (inches per word) from table I ,
we can estimate a total distance of
1.63 miles per day for a QWERTY
typist and 1.17 miles per day for a
Dvorak typist.

Because these numbers and their
ratio are so different from those
quoted by Dvorak in 1943 and by
Dvorak proponents ever since, we
wondered if our program was too sim-
ple or if it had some major flaw that
we had overlooked. We later dis-
covered that a major research effort
that studied typing, typists, and key-
boards arrived at results similar to our
own.

For Further
Information

The classic book detailing Dvorak's
original studies is Typewriting
behavior by A. Dvorak, N. L. Merrick,
W. L. Dealey, and G. C. Ford (American
Book Company, 1936).

The UCSD research on typing is sum-
marized in "The T/pist's Touch" by D. R.
Gentnerand D. A. Norman in Psychology

Today. March 1984, pages 66-72.

Current information and sources for
Dvorak-related products can be found
in a newsletter available from Dvorak
Dvelopments, POB 717, Areata, CA
95521. The newsletter costs $6 for two
sample issues and includes additional
material.

We wrote a program
to study finger motion
as a typist enters text

Donald Norman, Donald Gentner,
David Rumelhart, and their coworkers
at the University of California at San
Diego (UCSD) have used stop-action
videos (60 frames per second) and
high-speed motion pictures (100
frames per second) to analyze the
finger motions of typists. Both experts
and novices typed on keyboards con-
nected to microcomputers that in turn
recorded the time of each keystroke.
These tests enabled the UCSD group
to construct a computer model that
simulated a skilled human typist and
estimated typing speed based on the
frequencies of different finger move-
ments required.

Based on this model, the research-
ers concluded that, in terms of typ-
ing speed, the Dvorak keyboard is ac-
tually better than the QWERTY, but
only slightly (perhaps 5 percent to 10
percent faster). Just as we found with
finger travel, the relative improvement
is significantly less than what Dvorak
proponents claim it to be.

Which keyboard should you use?
The QWERTY system is entrenched in
our society. Anyone who must type at
more than one location is almost
forced to use the QWERTY keyboard.
A person who does almost all of his
or her typing on only one machine,
however, would benefit from learning
and using the Dvorak layout.

It will be interesting to see if Dvorak
products become more available in
the next few years. Although we
believe that certain numerical claims
may have been exaggerated in the
past, the Dvorak keyboard is definitely
more efficient than the QWERTY key-
board. ■

| Editor's note: The program described in this
article, DVORAK.BAS, along with a descrip-
tion and instructions for its use,
DVORAKTXT, is available for downloading
on BYTEnet Listings at (617) 861-9764. |

244 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

Feather ®

No Cords
Attached

M\

:0JL

iiit*>

HEI's Revolutionary Cordless Pen Offers
Greater Reliability and the Weight of a Feather.

When it comes to input devices, nothing's
as light as Feather.

At half the weight of a light pen, Feather
reduces operator fatigue. And Decause it's
cordless, operators can work faster, with less
restriction.

Using an infra-red communications link,
powered by commonly available batteries,

Being fully plug compatible, it can replace
almost any existing light pen.

Feather is easy to use, and easy to maintain.
By eliminating the cord, we've eliminated the
major reason for failures.

Feather has the same quality and reliability
found in the over 50,000 light pens already

" and manufactured by Light Sensing
Divison of HEI, inc.

It weighs less . . . but there
® is nothing lightweight
about its performance.

jlvil

Feather

.638

OEM pricing available

ght Sensing Products, a division of 1
Victoria, MN 55386 (612) 443-2500

Inquiry 150

BYTE Invites You to ]oin BIX

BYTE is the world's leading high-tech microcomputer magazine. Us readers
collectively possess more information about personal computers and
related topics than any other group in the world. BIX is BYTE's brand-new
electronic information exchange, a computer conferencing system that
puts you in touch with BYTE readers and other computer enthusiasts
on a daily basis.

YOU AND BIX

BIX goes far beyond electronic bulletin boards to
give you all the advanced features of true com-
puter conferencing. It's the first major system
dedicated to microcomputer information. Check
these features:

• You can join ongoing discussions about your
favorite computers, programming languages, op-
erating systems, and applications programs, ex-
change information, ask questions, and offer
opinions.

• You can read what others have already entered,
add your own thoughts, and download information.

• You can participate when it's convenient for you,
from home or office or while you're traveling.

• You also get electronic mail with BIX, putting you
in direct, private contact with BYTE editors and BIX
users everywhere.

Customize BIX to Meet Your Needs

As a BIX user, you select only the conferences and
topics that are of real interest to you. You may join
a new conference or leave an old one anytime you
want. Each time you log on to BIX, you're im-
mediately notified of any electronic mail messages
waiting for you, and you see which of the con-
ferences you've joined have had new activity since
the last time you logged on. BIX keeps track of
your interests.

With BIX, you're an active participant in a giant
microcomputer information exchange.

What BIX Costs. . .How You pay

ONE-TIME REGISTRATION FEE:

BYTE Subscriber $25

Nonsubscriber $39

BIX HOURLY USAGE FEES (All times are local):
Off Peak (6 p.m-7 a.m. plus weekends

and holidays) $9

Peak (7 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays) $12

TELECOMMUNICATIONS CHARGES:

BIX is available via lymnet from anywhere in the

United States.

TYMNET (Continental U.S.):

Off Peak $2/hr. Peak $6/hr.

PAYMENT:

BIX and Tymnet charges are billed through either

VISA or MasterCard. No cash, checks, or money

orders.

Start Using BIX Now!

With our easy on-line registration, you can start
using BIX in the next few minutes. No lengthy
waiting for your registration to be processed by
mail. (Step-by-step instructions on how to log on
to BIX follow. Reading this material before you
log on will speed you through the registration
process.)

Log-on Instructions

and Registration Information

BEFORE YOU CALL BIX:
Having your credit card handy (VISA/MasterCard)
before you log on will speed you through BIX
registration. You will not be billed for the time you spend
on line registering for BIX. \fat any time during the on-line
process you decide not to register for BIX, just hang up.

HOW TO LOG ON TO BIX:

Step 1: Set your computer's telecommunications

program for full duplex using 8-bit words, no parity,

246 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

and 1 stop bit, or 7-bit words, even parity, and 1
stop bit. You may call at either 300 or 1200 baud.

Step 2: To reach BIX via tymnet*

• Call your local Tymnet number and log on.

• tymnet will ask you for a "terminal identifier."
Type the letter "a."

• tymnet will ask you to log on. type "byteneti"
and a carriage return.

• tymnet will ask you for a password, type l, mgh"
and a carriage return.

• You will then be at the BIX computer. At the next
prompt, type "bix" and a carriage return. You're
now on line with BIX.

• BIX is accessible from anywhere in the country through
local Tymnet numbers. Call tymnet's 2 4- hour customer ser-
vice number, (800) 336-0149, for local tymnet numbers
and for assistance in setting your computer's communications
program properly. This is also the number to use to report
problems with the tymnet system. (There is a premium charge
for tymnet, but you still reach BIX for much less than regular
long distance.)

Step 3: Once on BIX, you will be asked to enter
your name. Since this will be your first time on the
system, enter "new" and a carriage return. This will

take you to a special section where you enter the
information we need to register you as a BIX user.
Follow the on-line prompts and supply the infor-
mation requested. BIX lets you reenter data if you
make a mistake.

When you've completed your registration, BIX
will automatically take you to a special "Learn"
conference where you'll get a quick tutorial on how
to use the system, (typing "help" or "?" at any
prompt while you are on BIX will give you an im-
mediate review of available commands.)

Problems: If you follow these instructions but still
are unable to log on to BIX, call the BIX Customer
Service Line for assistance at (800) 227-2983 from
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. eastern time weekdays.
In New Hampshire, call 924-9281.

Accessing BIX from Foreign Countries

BIX is accessible from most foreign countries via
the tymnet network in the United States. Once you
reach tymnet, follow the log-on instructions listed
here.

If you do not know how to reach tymnet from
your country, call or write us for more detailed
information.

We'll Send You a BIX User's
Manual and Subscriber Agreement
As Soon As Wve Processed
Your Registration

BYTE Information exchange
70 Main Street
Peterborough, NH 03458
(603) 924-9281

Inquiry 450

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 247

BYTE

Reviews

Reviewers Notebook

by Glenn Hartwig 251

The Motorola VME/10

by Robert E. Robinson III 253

MacCharlie

by Larry Crockett 262

Lattices 8086/8088 C Compiler

by Dayle S. VJoolston 273

Turbo Pascal 3.0

by Mark Bridger 281

Review Feedback 287

THE MOTOROLA VME/10, based on a 68000-series microprocessor, is an
expansion-oriented system with a configuration that ultimately reflects the
user's requirements. In other words, you buy the basic set of boxes and boards,
but what you add to it after that is pretty much up to you. As such, reviewer
Robert E. Robinson III points out, the VME/10's versatility gives it utility in
applications from business to science. The possibilities can get a little bewilder-
ing after a while, but Dr. Robinson goes into all the permutations with ease
and clarity. If you've decided that what you need is a powerful computer that
can continue to increase in power, you'd be doing yourself a favor by reading
this article.

In our next review, Larry Crockett takes us through MacCharlie from Dayna
Communications. Designed to permit you access to IBM software through a
Macintosh, the unit consists of an 8088 processor running at 4.77 MHz, 640K
bytes of RAM, and two 360K-byte 5 !4-inch floppy-disk drives (Dayna now sells
a wider variety of configurations, including a hard-disk model, but this is the
one we received for review). MacCharlie also comes with the software neces-
sary to combine the two modes of operation, transfer files, etc., as well as
its own MS-DOS operating system and GW-BASIC. Dr. Crockett points out that
any product with one foot in each of two different worlds runs the risk of
performing below expectations in both operating areas. In this case, he feels
that MacCharlie performs its self-appointed task as a bridge well enough that
you could consider it seriously if you feel you need the kinds of capabilities
it offers. If you've already got a Macintosh and want or need access to IBM
software, this review could open up a new path for you.

Lattice continues to update and improve its 8086/8088 C compiler, and this
month's review of version 2.15 highlights a product that is a major departure
from earlier versions. (Just as we were going to press, the company announced
an even newer version, 3.0, but what Lattice sent to BYTE was still a pre-
production copy and could not be used in our evaluation. Rather than hold
on to the review indefinitely until a final copy of the update is available, we
decided to proceed with the review of the current production version.) Com-
paring release 2.15 with earlier versions, reviewer Dayle S. Woolston points
out that it includes "major improvements in the speed and accuracy of the
math libraries, a new command-line option, refinements, and bug fixes."

Our final review this month covers version 3.0 of Borland International's TUrbo
Pascal. Reviewer Mark Bridger notes that the reason for llirbo Pascal's in-
creased speed over other Pascals is the fact that it has no link step. Addi-
tionally Ttirbo Pascal is 5 to 10 times smaller than other implementations.
Now, how does version 3.0 stack up against the company's own earlier ver-
sions? According to Mr. Bridger, 3.0's major changes involve offering more
of the same qualities most evident in previous incarnations. Version 3.0, for
example, compiles about twice as fast as version 2.0. Aside from speed, our
reviewer also comments on the package's new graphics procedures.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 249

ENERGRAPHICS 2.0

WE SIMPLY MADE IT BETTER!

It's here! The newest release of
ENERGRAPHICS. The graphics package once
labeled "A Step Ahead of the Rest", has now
jumped even further ahead with its Version 2.0.
In one package we have combined more types
of graphics with more capability employing the
latest in easQ-of-use methods than any PC
package available today. To say it simply.
Enertronics has made ENERGRAPHICS 2.0 the
easiest to use and the best there is!

f Ocpb BIB dFFice Layout
Furniture ConFlgurablan

Some Highlights of

New Ease-of-Use
Features:

• Mouse/Digitizer
(Optional)

• Help Screens

• On-Screen Graphics
Editing

• Drawing Commands
On-Screen

ENERGRAPHICS 2.0
New Capabilities:

• 2 and 3 Dimensional
Pie, Bar, Line Charts

• Paint/Fill

• New Fonts

• Merge up to 4
Graphs on a Screen

• Entirely New
Documentation

• Conversion of 2D
Symbols into 3D
Symbols

• User Defined Curve
Fitting

Of course we can't list all
the 2.0 enhancements but
we know this is the program for you. And, for
those who only want the charting capability of
ENERGRAPHICS 2.0, we've packaged it into a
separate product called ENERCHARTS. So whether
you want the total graphics solution offered by
ENERGRAPHICS or just charting with ENERCHARTS,
you'll have the best in PC graphics available to you.

ENERGRAPHICS 2.0— For your every graphics need!
ENERCHARTS— For only your charting graphics need!

Update Information:

ENERGRAPHICS 2.0— Send $75.00 and #7 diskette from ENERGRAPHICS 1.3.
ENERCHARTS— For a current ENERGRAPHICS user, send $195.00 and your #2
diskette from ENERGRAPHICS 1.3.

Ordering Information: All orders require a check/money order or Visa/
Mastercard plus a shipping and handling charge.

ENERGRAPHICS 2.0— $595.00 Retail ENERCHARTS— $395.00 Retail

Or, call our toll free number for a dealer in your area (800) 325-0174.

New Interfaces:

• Lotus* 1-2-3™ with
WKS™

• Wordstar™ I Multi plan*

• Video Show™

• EGA Board

• Hercules Board

• Polaroid" Palette!
Matrix QCR™

• H.R Laser Jet Printer

TRONICS

SEEING IS BELIEVING

Enertronics Research, Inc.

#5 Station Plaza

1910 Pine Street

Inquiry I3l

St Louis, MO 63103

800-325-0174

REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK

Zenith's new laptop portable, the
ZP-1 50, looks to be a well-featured
unit in some respects. For example, it
comes with its own modem, Microsoft
Word instead of a simple text editor,
a database program, a spreadsheet,
telecommunications software, remov-
able ROM-pack for the applications
packages, BASIC programming lan-
guage, two sockets for memory ex-
pansion, and several other attributes
that seem well-considered and
thoughtfully implemented. It has two
methods of adjusting the readability
of the screen— with a contrast-control
thumbwheel or by adjusting the angle
of the screen with the aid of multi-
position hinges. In spite of this,
however, the 80 by 16 LCD screen was
hard for me to read under any but the
most favorable light. I found it to be
one of the least attractive features of
the ZP-1 50.

Power is supplied by ten AA cells
when you're away from an electrical
outlet. The keyboard is standard in its
alphanumeric layout and has a cross-
shaped cursor pad in the upper right
corner. There are ten function keys ar-
rayed latitudinally across the face of
the key platform above the row of nu-
meric keys.

One feature I like is that, unlike such
laptops as the HP Portable Plus or the
Ikndy family of LCD-screen portables,
the ZP-1 50 uses standard telephone,
serial, and parallel interfaces. You can
go into a hotel room, for example, and
telecommunicate without having to
fool around with separate cables,
plugs, or associated devices. On the
other hand, you're going to be stuck
poking along at 300 bits per second
while the timer at the bottom of the
screen shows you just exactly how ex-
pensive it is to check your electronic
mailbox.

You also should be aware that the
telecommunications program is not

able to take a Word document and
transform it automatically into an
ASCII document for uploading. The
way it works is that you have to set
the margins to zero, print the Word
file to another file (hoping all the while
that you have the memory for it), and
then upload that file.

Having enough memory is no joke
with the ZP-1 50. 1 had a major prob-
lem when one file disappeared when
I tried to rename it. The status mes-
sage at the bottom of the screen said
there wasn't enough memory to per-
form the operation I'd requested; and
when I went to look at the document
under its old name, the screen stub-
bornly and irrevocably remained
blank. If I'm sometimes skittish
around laptops, the reason is that I
have a hard time reconciling myself to
big mistakes that I was unaware could
happen until the results are in. Avoid-
ing catastrophic failures becomes sec-
ond nature after a while, but the learn-
ing curve is a bother.

One of our reviews this month is
of MacCharlie from Dayna Com-
munications, an interesting approach
to the mingling of IBM and Apple
philosophies (or, at least, programs).
Newer yet is the recently announced
hard-disk MacCharlie that can signifi-
cantly speed up the swapping of in-
formation between IBM PC and Apple
Macintosh formats. Slow disk drives
being one of the reasons why the
Macintosh is criticized, the availabili-
ty of faster disk access (even if it is
through a serial interface) can be con-
sidered a step in the right direction.
Another Dayna introduction designed
to make things simpler for mixed ma-
chine environments is Dayna's new ex-
ternal chassis that will take up to six
IBM PC expansion boards.

Granted that the communication
between a Macintosh and an IBM PC

represented by the various Dayna
products is a more sophisticated
thing, I think that the file-transfer
capabilities to be found in an ordinary
Imagewriter printer cable could use a
brief mention. The Imagewriter printer
cable can be used as a null modem
connection between a Macintosh and
an IBM PC or compatible. Either leave
the cable plugged into the Macin-
tosh's printer port or move it over to
the modem port. Plug the other end
with the 2 5-pin connector into either
the serial printer port or the modem
port on the IBM PC/compatible. You
may need to buy a gender changer
for the IBM end, depending on how
your brand of compatible is set up.
You need a communications program
up and running on each machine, but
the transfer process is straightforward.
Data-transfer rate is 9600 bits per
second.

General Computer looks as if it is
continuing to innovate with its
new HyperDrive 2000. By itself, the
HyperDrive 2000, with its 12-MHz
clock, 1.5-megabyte RAM, and float-
ing-point math coprocessor, looked
impressively fast running sample
graphics programs alongside Hyper-
Drive 20s and 10s and a 512Krbyte
Macintosh. It was still having trouble
synchronizing its fast clock with the
others' 6-MHz rates, however, in a
demonstration of networking soft-
ware. The object of that software, by
the way, is to allow each HyperDrive
on the link to be accessed by every
other HyperDrive or Macintosh. The
net result is intended to be a prolifera-
tion of file servers that will continue
to act as personal computers in the
foreground while they simultaneously
function as network nodes in the
background.

—Glenn Hartwig
Technical Editor, Reviews

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 251

ftp if

r C'' -^ ■¥?:'%

*

*% ;

^f

■3l

The ITT XTRA XP desktop personal computer.

You can't buy time.

Long before Queen Elizabeth I, man
began his quest to hoard that most precious
and elusive of commodities. Time.

He can only make
better use of the few ■
hours he already has.
Hence, the devel-
pment of today's
business computer.

ThelTTXTRAiMXP. Our
crowning achievement.

By matching memory to the muscle of
the Intel 80286 microprocessor, we're able
to achieve "no wait states!'

Processing never pauses for slower
memory.

Making the ITT XTRA XP thirty per-
cent faster than the IBM KF. And fully
XT-compatible.

Giving you speed and flexibility.

Because, being a corporation of many
businesses, we're in a unique position to
better understand what you need to grow.

Today, as well as tomorrow.

ITT COMPAQ IBM

XTRA XP 286 PC/AT

Lotus 1-2-3

Usee

13sec

15sec

dBase

36sec

52sec

56sec

FormSort

52sec

lmin 5sec

IminlOsec

All comparisons ;ire for purposes of illustration only. User's application performance is
dependent on application.

A moment's investment today
can pay off royally tomorrow.

Call (800) 321-7661. In California,
(800) 368-7300.

And call quickly. Every moment wasted
is a potentially profit-
able moment you'll
never possess again.

PERSONAL COMPUTERS

ITT

BECAUSE TIME IS THE
ULTIMATE BGTIOM LINE.

€' 1986. ITT Information Systems. IBM. PC/AT and PC/XT are registered trademarks of

International Business Machines. Intel 80286 is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation.

Compaq 286 is a R'^iskioi trademark of Compaq Computer Corporation. Lotus and

1-2-3 are- registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. dBase is a registered

trademark of Ashton-Tatc

Inquiry 171 for End-Users. Inquiry 172 for DEALERS ONLY.

SYSTEM REVIEW

The Motorola VME/10

A flexible

multiuser

system

by Robert E.
Robinson III

Robert E. Robinson 111 is a

physician in the private practice of

internal medicine. An electrical

engineer prior to attending medical

school, he did research at Wake

Forest and the University of

California at Ids Angeles on the

application of computer systems to

the processing of medical

information. He can be reached at

2323 Northeast 26th Ave.. Suite

103, Pompano Beach. FL 33062.

Although initially designed as a
development system for original
equipment manufacturers that
use the Motorola 68ra series of micropro-
cessors, the VME/10 is a flexible computer
of considerable interest for business and
scientific applications.

The control-unit chassis, which measures
23 by 19 by 7 inches, houses a 400-watt
switching power supply a fan, a processor/
MMU (memory-management unit) board, a
graphics/interface board, a disk controller,
a 1 5- or 40-megabyte hard disk, a 5 '/4-inch
floppy-disk drive with a 655K-byte capaci-
ty, and an expansion-card cage that pro-
vides a five-slot VMEbus backplane and a
four-slot I/O (input/output) channel back-
plane (see photo 1).

The graphics/interface board has 384K
bytes of RAM (random-access read/write
memory), 32 K bytes of ROM/PROM/
EPROM (read-only memory/programmable
ROM/erasable PROM), an interrupt handler,
a time-of-day clock, a keyboard interface, an
I/O channel interface, and a graphics sub-
system. The RAM is multiported to facilitate
shared access between the microprocessor,
VMEbus, and graphics controller. The
graphics subsystem displays characters in
an 80-column by 2 5-line format, graphics in
an 800- by 600-pixel matrix, or a combina-
tion of character and pixel graphics. The
medium-resolution mode dedicates 192K
bytes of RAM to graphics. You can modify
an 8K-byte character-display RAM to re-
define characters. The subsystem provides
color or seven shades of gray.

The processor/MMU board, a small
daughterboard located on top of the graph-
ics/interface board, contains the MC68010
microprocessor and up to three MC68451
memory-management units. Each can han-
dle 32 separate program/data segments.
The graphics/interface, processor/MMU,
and disk-controller boards that form the
VME/10 system-control module are not
plug-compatible with the VMEbus. Reliance
on the large graphics/interface board has

two major disadvantages. Updating the
microprocessor electronics requires re-
placement of an expensive, multifunction
board. And the board, which is virtually
fixed in place, is much more difficult to
remove and service than a module that you
can unplug.

Serial terminal communications are pro-
vided through use of one or more of the
MVME331 or MVME400 modules. The
MVME331 is a 68010-based intelligent con-
troller capable of handling six RS-232C or
RS-422 ports. Four can be either syn-
chronous or asynchronous. The MVME400
has two RS-232C multiprotocol ports with
data-transmission rates extending from 50
to 307,200 bits per second. The MVME4I0
16-bit parallel port serves as a dual
Centronics-type printer interface. In addi-
tion to the modules, Motorola supplies a
variety of backplanes, floppy- and hard-disk
assemblies, power supplies, and I/O
adapters that are used for industrial control
systems.

With the VME "Open System" starter sys-
tem, you can replace the functions of the
system-control module with a monoboard
computer (M VME 1 2 1 ) , system-controller
module (MVME050), and an intelligent disk
controller (MVME320). The starter system
also includes a 1 5-slot chassis and power
supply (MVME943) and a floppy-/hard-disk
module (MVME820). You can add 1024- by
1024-pixel resolution graphics to this con-
figuration by installing the MVME390
graphics-display module.

The mass-storage subsystem includes a
disk controller, a double-sided quad-density
96-tpi (tracks per inch) floppy-disk drive with
a formatted capacity of 655K bytes, and a
1 5- or 40-megabyte Winchester disk drive.
Average seek time is 70 milliseconds for the
15-megabyte and 33 ms for the 40-mega-
byte Winchester drive. Despite a number of
power failures in our building, the drives
have so far survived without developing any
mechanical problems. Media difficulties

[continued)

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 253

REVIEW: VME/10

have been responsible for rare, irre-
coverable read/write errors on the
floppy-disk drive.

The 105-key detachable keyboard
has the full ASCII character set, 16
function keys, a cursor/tab-control
pad, interchangeable keycaps, and a
numeric pad The main key grouping
conforms to the QWERTY layout.
However, the Ctrl and Alt keys are
where the shift keys normally are and
Del is in the backspace location. In ad-
dition, I would prefer to have the
Clear, Break, and Reset keys, which
are on the cursor-control pad, in an
even more remote location.

The display unit, which mounts on
a tilt-and-swivel stand, comes in one
of two models: a 15-inch green-
phosphor monochrome video display
or a 14-inch color monitor. The review
unit's monochrome display had quite
good picture quality and was trouble-
free. However, the cable connecting
the display to the control-unit chassis
is very short: the display must rest on
top of or immediately beside the con-
trol unit.

The VMEbus

The VMEbus is a versatile bus that
provides for the rapid, reliable

transfer of 32-bit data. The VMEbus
uses an asynchronous protocol and
can support data-transfer rates up to
57 megabytes per second when oper-
ating in the 3 2 -bit mode. The cards
that connect to the bus conform to
the Eurocard format, which is a con-
venient card size except that a
minimum of panel space is available
for mounting connectors.

Ttoo high-quality 96-pin connectors
provide for data transfer between the
cards and the bus. The primary con-
nector implements a parallel non-
multiplexed data-transfer bus with 8-
and 16-bit data transfers, 24-bit ad-
dressing, and all control signals. The
second connector provides expansion
to full 3 2 -bit address space and data
transfer. See table 1 for a partial listing
of the modules now available for use
with the VMEbus and the I/O channel.

There have been two recent exten-
sions of the VMEbus. The VMXbus is
a subsystem bus that facilitates expan-
sion of a local processor's memory in
a multiple-processor configuration. It
has a maximum data-transfer rate of
80 megabytes per second. The
VMSbus is a self -arbitrating serial bus
used to handle control-message traf-
fic between multiple processors. It can

Photo I : The rear view of the control-unit chassis showing the VME modules.

transfer data at rates up to 3.2 mega-
bits per second.

Hardware Problems

The VME/10 has been extremely
reliable: I have had only three prob-
lems during 17 months of heavy use.
A mask error in the early production
run of the MC68010 microprocessor
caused a failure in the reset function.
Until I installed the replacement for
the MC68010, I had to reset the sys-
tem manually on power-up, a trivial
inconvenience.

TheMVME201 256K-byte memory
module functioned normally under
the VERSAdos operating system and
passed repeated system diagnostics,
but it intermittently failed when run-
ning UNIX. A later version of the
module corrected the problem. Final-
ly, I had to replace the cooling fan
when it developed a noisy bearing.

Operating Systems

Motorola supplies three operating
systems for the VME/10. I used
VERSAdos on the system for nine
months: subsequently, 1 have used
UNIX. I have not been able to test
CP/M-68K.

VERSADOS

VERSAdos provides multitasking,
multiprogramming capabilities. Pro-
grams execute in dynamically as-
signed, variable-length segments with
read/write privileges. Instructions and
data are located in separate memory
segments. The RMS68K real-time ex-
ecutive supports memory manage-
ment, provides task services, handles
interrupts, and facilitates intertask
communications. The I/O system sup-
ports device independence, logic I/O,
overlapped computation, and physi-
cal I/O. File-system features include
contiguous, sequential-length, and
indexed-sequential file structures;
shared access: dynamic file alloca-
tion: and fixed or active protection.
Pascal, FORTRAN, and an assem-
bler are available under VERSAdos.
BASIC and C are in the planning. The
assembly language is powerful, easy
to use, and includes structured con-

(contlnued)

254 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

AT A GLANCE

Name

Motorola V ME/10

Company

Motorola Semiconductor

Products Inc.
Microsystem Operations
2900 South Diablo Way
Tempe, AZ 85282
(800) 521-7274

Components

Processor: 32-/1 6-bit 10-MHz
Motorola MC68010
Memory: 384K bytes (basic)
expandable to 16 megabytes
Display: 15-inch monochrome
green-phosphor video display
or 14-inch color monitor
Keyboard: 105 keys with 16
function keys, QWERTY
Mass storage: 655K-byte
floppy-disk drive, 15- or
40-megabyte Winchester drive
Expansion: Five VMEbus
slots, four l/O-channel slots,
approximately 37 Motorola
modules provide major system
expansion

Software

CP/M-68K $350

UNIX System V/68 $1695

VERSAdos $2000

(included with VME/10
and "Open System")
Assembler, BASIC, C, CBASIC,
FORTRAN, Pascal, PL/I

Documentation

Technical and software
manuals— approximately 3000
pages

Price

Monochrome display and
^15-megabyte Winchester
drive $12,995

Monochrome display and
40-megabyte Winchester
drive $14,995

Color display and
40-megabyte Winchester
drive $16,530

VME "Open System" and
15-megabyte Winchester
drive $9995

en

it I # f f I 1 f "I i t:t i t i W\ \

MEMORY SIZE (KBYTES) DISK STORAGE (KBYTES)

200 400 600 800 1000 400 800 1200 1600 2000

|

16 MEGABYTES S^ 1

1

1

15 MEGABYTES

El

BUNDLED SOFTWARE PACKAGES

2 4 6 8

10

PRICE ($ 1000)

2 4

10

$12,995^"

w%>.

g) MOTOROLA VME/10 |p:j|| IBM PC Y^//\ APPLE EE

The Memory Size graph shows the standard
and optional memory for the computers under
comparison. The Disk Storage graph shows the
highest capacity for a single floppy-disk drive
and the maximum standard capacity for each
system. The Bundled Software Packages graph
shows the number of software packages in-
cluded with each system. The Price graph
shows the list price of a system configured with

two disk drives, a monochrome monitor; graph-
ics and color-display capability, a printer port
and a serial port, 256K bytes of memory (64K
bytes for 8-bit systems), the standard operating
systems for the computers under comparison,
and the standard BASIC interpreter. The price
for the Motorola VME/10 includes a mono-
chrome display and the 15-megabyte Win-
chester disk drive.

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 255

REVIEW: VME/10

DISK ACCESS IN BASIC (SEC)
2 50

200

150

100

50

BASIC PERFORMANCE (SEC)

250

CALCULATIONS

SYSTEM UTILITIES (SEC)

SPREADSHEET (SEC)
2

40K FORMAT/DISK COPY

40K FILE COPY LOAD RECALCULATE

H MOTOROLA VME/10 [:'??$\ IBM PC X///A APPLE HE

The graph for Disk Access i n BASIC shows how long it takes to write
and to read a 64K-byte sequential text file to a blank formatted flop-
py disk. (For the program listings, see June 1984 BYTE, page 327,
and October 1984, page 33.) The Sieve column in the BASIC Per-
formance graph shows how long it takes to run one iteration of the
Sieve of Eratosthenes prime-number benchmark. The Calculations
column shows how long it takes to do 10,000 multiplication and 10,000
division operations using single-precision numbers. The System
Utilities graph shows how long it takes to format and to copy a stan-
dard text file to disk (adjusted for 40K bytes of disk data) and to copy
a 40K-byte file using the system utilities. The Spreadsheet graph
shows how long it takes to load and recalculate a 25- by 25-cell
spreadsheet where each cell equals 1.001 times the cell to its left.
These benchmarks have been run on a VME/10 with 640K bytes
of RAM and a 15-megabyte Winchester disk drive. This configura-
tion is less than the minimum 896K bytes of RAM and 40-megabyte

Winchester recommended by Motorola. The 40-megabyte drive is
significantly faster than the 15-megabyte drive. The operating system
used was UNIX System V/68, release 1, version 2.8. The Winchester
disk drive operates in a polled mode and the system is slower than
the interrupt mode used in the now-available release 2. For the
VME/10, the Disk Access and Sieve tests are from David F. Hinnant's
article "Benchmarking UNIX Systems" (August 1984 BYTE, page
132). The Calculations benchmark is a C version of BYTE's test. The
Disk Write benchmark creates and writes a 512- by 256-byte file.
The Read benchmark randomly reads this file. The disk-format time
is the time required per 40K bytes of floppy-disk space. The file-copy
time is that required for the UNIX utility cp to copy a 40K-byte file
from one area to another on the hard disk. These tests have been
done using an almost-full 15-megabyte disk that contains more than
800 files. The time required is due partly to the searching of the direc-
tories and locating free disk space.

256 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

SAVE 50 %

4226

United States D One Year $21 D 2 Years $38 D 3 Years $55

Canada/Mexico □ One Year U.S. $23 □ 2 Years U.S. $42 □ 3 Years U.S. $61

Europe D $69 (air delivery), U.S. Funds enclosed

Worldwide □ $37 (surface mail), U.S. Funds enclosed

□ BILL ME. If I'm not completely satisfied with my first copy,
I'll simply write "cancel" across your invoice, mail it back, and
my subscription will be cancelled.

□ Check Enclosed □ Bill VISA □ Bill Mastercard
Please allow 6-8 weeks for processing your subscription.

Address

City/State/Zip
Card *

Expires_

Signature

'off newsstand price of $42.00

m

4226

United States D One Year $21 □ 2 Years $38

Canada/Mexico □ One Year U.S. $23 □ 2 Years U.S. $42

Europe □ $69 (air delivery), U.S. Funds enclosed

Worldwide D $37 (surface mail), U.S. Funds enclosed

D BILL ME. If I'm not completely satisfied with my first copy,
I'll simply write "cancel" across your invoice, mail it back, and
my subscription will be cancelled.

D Check Enclosed D BillVISA □ Bill Mastercard

Please allow 6-8 weeks for processing your subscription.

□ 3 Years $55

□ 3 Years U.S. $61

Address

City/State/Zip
Card*

Expires..

Signature

'off newsstand price of $42.00

■inn

BUSINESS REPLY MAIL

FIRST CLASS PERMIT NO. 39 MARTINSVILLE, NJ

POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE

BITE

Subscription Dept.

P.O. Box 597

Martinsville, NJ 08836-9956

NO POSTAGE

NECESSARY

IF MAILED

IN THE

UNITED STATES

BUSINESS REPLY MAIL

FIRST CLASS PERMIT NO. 39 MARTINSVILLE, NJ

POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE

BYTE

Subscription Dept.

P.O. Box 597

Martinsville, NJ 08836-9956

NO POSTAGE

NECESSARY

IF MAILED

IN THE

UNITED STATES

REVIEW: VME/10

trol statements and other advanced
features. The assembler provides for
absolute/relocatable code generation,
complex expressions, macros, and
conditional assembly. I have not en-
countered any assembly errors.
Motorola Pascal follows the standard
with the addition of many UCSD
extensions for string processing. Un-
fortunately, it has no capability for
randomly accessing disk-based files.
Utilities include an editor, system-
accounting routines, graphics, a
spooler, a file copier, and other file-
maintenance programs. In addition,
VERSAdos has a 16K-byte resident
firmware monitor and debugging
package.

UNIX System V/68

In order to use UNIX, you must ex-
pand the basic VME/10 system to in-
clude one memory module, a dual-
channel parallel port, and a dual- or
six-channel serial I/O controller.

UNIX System V/68 is quite compre-
hensive, and its content is similar to
that of a typical large-scale system.
The size of the object-code version of
UNIX is approximately 1 5 megabytes.
The UNIX System V/68 consists of a
sophisticated multitasking multiuser
operating system called the kernel, a
C compiler, a variety of other lan-
guage processors, a command lan-
guage called the shell, text editors
and document-preparation aids,
graphics, an accounting system, com-
munications, and a variety of pro-
gramming utilities. It is remarkably
free of many of the restrictions and
cumbersome operations charac-
teristic of many operating systems.

UNIX does have some disadvan-
tages. The system carries out frequent
housekeeping operations that place
heavy demand on the hardware, and
a significant degradation of perfor-
mance occurs while housekeeping is
in process. The file system is easily
corrupted, and major problems can
result from main power failures and
from running out of free disk space.

FORTRAN, SNOBOL, C, assembly
language, BS (a remote descendant of
BASIC and SNOBOL with some C

{continued)

T^ble 1 : Motorola WMEbus-compatible and \lO<hannel-compatible modules.
Approximately 120 companies are reportedly manufacturing more than 500
VMEbus-compatible products.

VMEbus-compatible modules:

MVME050 System control with time-of-day clock, printer port, two serial ports,

64K bytes of RAM or 512K bytes of EPROM $1595

MVME200 64K-byte dynamic RAM with byte parity $895

MVME201 256K-byte dynamic RAM with byte parity $1050

MVME202 512K- to 2048K-byte dynamic RAM with byte parity $1395

MVME204 1024K-byte dynamic RAM with byte parity and dual porting

for VMEbus and MVMX32bus $4200

MVME210 Static RAM/ROM module $795

MVME211 Static ROM/RAM module $750

MVME214 Static RAM/ROM module with MVMX32bus $1400

MVME222 1- to 2-megabyte dynamic RAM with parity $1750-$2750

MVME300 IEEE-488 GPIB controller with DMA $1395

MVME310 Universal intelligent controller $1180

MVME315 Intelligent floppy/controller SASI interface $1295

MVME316 l/O-channel interface $630

MVME319 Intelligent floppy/tape controller and SASI/SCSI; supports up to
eight Winchester drives and combination of cipher floppy/tape
and/or floppy-disk drive $1395

MVME320 Winchester/floppy intelligent disk controller; controls two Winchester
and two floppy-disk drives or four floppy-disk drives with serial data
rates to 5 megabits per second $1650

MVME330 Ethernet LAN controller $2600

MVME331 Six-port MC68010-based intelligent serial synchronous/asynchronous

I/O controller with 128K/512K bytes of RAM $1999

MVME333 Six-port MC68010-based intelligent serial synchronous/asynchronous

I/O controller with 128K/512K bytes of RAM, four-channel DMA . . .$2310

MVME340 Parallel I/O interface with 60 pins of programmable I/O $1125

MVME390 Graphics-display module with 1024- by 1024-pixel resolution $3149

l/O-channel-compatible modules:

MVME400 Dual RS-232C multiprotocol serial port $395

MVME410 Dual 16-bit parallel port (printer interface) $350

MVME420 SASI adapter $395

MVME435A Buffered nine-track magnetic tape adapter $875

MVME600 12-bit analog input module $750

MVME605 12-bit analog output module $675

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 257

Run

Protected
Software
from a
Hard Disk.

foDisk
ZeroDisk
ZeroDisk
ZeroDisk

ZeroDisk lets you run dozens
of popular business software
packages without floppies.
Call us for the latest list of
software it handles. ZeroDisk
needs an IBM PC or XT or AT
or compatible, running under
DOS version 2.0 or higher. It
occupies 15k bytes of
memory. ZeroDisk is not
copy-protected.

ZeroDisk is revised monthly.
You may get revisions lor an
$18 US trade-in fee.

To order ZeroDisk, send a
check for $75 US, or call us
with your credit card. We
will ship the software within
a day. 8

Quaid Software Limited

45 Charles Street East

Third Floor

Toronto, Ontario M4Y 1S2

(416)961-8243

REVIEW: VME/IO

added), and the shell command lan-
guage are bundled with UNIX. Pascal,
BASIC, and CBASIC are options. I have
primarily used C, which seems iden-
tical to AT&T C. I have not en-
countered any errors in the compiler.

Programming support tools include
make, a program for maintaining and
updating computer programs; sees,
the source-code control system; lex,
a lexical-analyzer generator; and
yacc, a general tool for imposing
structure on the input to a computer
program.

A library of some 400 utilities in-
cludes most of those found in the
larger UNIX systems. The notable ex-
ceptions are windowing software and
a relational database manager.

The text editors are ed, edit, ex,
sed, and vi. The vi editor is display-
oriented and based on an underlying
line editor, ex. Absent is emacs, an-
other display-oriented editor available
on many UNIX systems. Other docu-
ment-preparation tools are the text
formatters nroff and troff and the spell-
ing checker spell.

Although vi is more than adequate
for editing program text, it is not a
good word processor. It has restric-
tions related to the line-oriented
mode of operation, and there can be
delays in the display of typed charac-
ters. For example, vi and sync, a UNIX
utility that flushes all previously un-
written buffers out to the disk,
periodically write text data to the disk.
During these disk operations, there
can be a disconcerting delay of
several seconds.

The communications programs in-
clude cu, uucp, and their associated
utilities. The routines facilitate
computer-to-computer communica-
tion under both user and program
control. The current UNIX System
V/68 version of these programs has
several major deficiencies: You cannot
use the same serial port for outgoing
and automatically answered incoming
calls, speed sensing is not reliable,
and the system does not work with
modems that have auto-dialing capa-
bility The communications package
AT&T uses on its 3B2 series of com-
puters does not have these deficien-

cies. This is the only instance to date
of a major difference between UNIX
System V and UNIX System V/68.

Bringing Up UNIX

UNIX is difficult to install because the
system is complex and the documen-
tation is poor. I also had an early
release with major system software
bugs and a hardware failure that oc-
curred only when running UNIX.

Dozens of shell scripts and data
tables control the operation of the
UNIX environment. The bundled soft-
ware package defines most of these,
but you will still have considerable
work to tailor the system to your
needs, such as defining system and
user profiles and setting up account-
ing routines.

Installing terminal facilities is a
major undertaking. For example, in
order to use a line printer connected
to the dual-channel parallel port, you
must write a shell-script printer-inter-
face program and a C program to set
up the spooler commands and to
control printer indentation, column
size, and lines per page. The installa-
tion of serial terminal facilities re-
quires complex entries in multiple
shell scripts and tables. The documen-
tation describing these steps is gross-
ly inadequate.

DOCUMENTATION

Motorola's hardware documentation
is excellent. Each module comes with
a detailed, well-written manual con-
taining the theory of operation, circuit
schematics, interconnections, parts
lists, and other pertinent information.

Most of the software manuals are
loose-leaf notebooks, there are
thousands of pages, and the books
now occupy about three feet of shelf
space. The description of VERSAdos
is well organized, is clearly written,
and provides detailed information
and many programming examples.
The Pascal manual is confusing, is dif-
ficult to use, and contains few helpful
programming examples.

The UNIX manuals consist almost
entirely of material from AT&T texts.
They are geared toward knowledge-

[continued)

258 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Become twice as productive with half the effort and three times
the fun. Whether you're using AutoCAD, Lotus 1-2-3, PC
Paintbrush or Reflex. LOGIMOUSE is the productivity demon
that gets you there faster.

At a powerful
$ 99 price.

HARDWARE SUPERIOR LOGIMOUSE has always been
hardware superior. Which is why it's the consistent choice of
professional users.

■ HIGH resolution — twice as high as most other mice

■ NO pad, NO external power supply — FREE of the optical
mouse jumble of pads, wires, and plugs

■ IBM PC, XT, AT compatible directly into any serial port

SOFTWARE SUPERIOR LOGIMOUSE software is still a
generation ahead in bringing the mouse to its full power within
your application.

■ Fully compatible with AutoCAD, GEM, Lotus 1-2-3,
MS Windows, all Microsoft compatible programs, PC
Paintbrush, Reflex and many, many more

■ LOGIMOUSE Software Disk FREE with every mouse,
including:

Universal Mouse Driver with easy Mouse Setting File
TAG, the Text-And-Graphics editor
LOGIMOUSE INTERFACE for 1-2-3

LOGIMOUSE INTERFACE FOR LOTUS FREE

The all new LOGIMOUSE INTERFACE for Lotus 1-2-3 sets a
new industry standard for making 1-2-3 work faster and easier.
LOGIMOUSE is not just a replacement for keyboard key-
strokes. It's a 1-2-3 liberator that makes Lotus more fun to use,
OFFERED FREE for a limited time
on every LOGIMOUSE Software Disk.

LOGIPAINT SET $ 149

LOGIMOUSE C7 plus PC Paintbrush 3.0 is the most advanced
paint set available for the PC. Use LOGIPAINT for designing a
logo, creating a cartoon, or drawing a picture of a product
you're developing. You won't believe its power with either free
hand drawing or graphics.

To place a credit card order
call our special toll free number:

800-231-7717

In California:

800-552-8885

YES

□
□

I I want to seize the LOGTMOUSE Power!
I Please send me:

LOGIMOUSE C7 with the Universal Mouse Driver, TAG
and the LOGIMOUSE INTERFACE for 1-2-3. $99*
LOGIPAINT SET— LOGIMOUSE C7 with the Universal
Mouse Driver, TAG, the LOGIMOUSE INTERFACE for
1-2-3, PLUS PC Paintbrush 3.0. $149*

'Add $5 for shipping and handling.
D VISA □ MASTERCARD D CHECK ENCLOSED

Card Number

Expiration Date

SIGNATURE
NAME

ADDRESS-

CITY, STATE.
ZIP

. PHONE_

ffl LOGITECH

LOGITECH, Inc.

805 Veterans Blvd., Redwood City, CA 94063, USA

Telephone: (415) 365-9852

LOGIMOUSE is a registered trademark of LOGITECH Inc. AutoCAD is a trademark of
Autodesk Inc. GEM is a trademark of Digital Research Inc. Lotus and 1-2-3 are trademarks
of Lotus Development Corp. MS Windows is a trademark of Microsoft. PC Paintbrush is a
trademark of ZSof t Corp. Reflex is a trademark of Borland/Analytica Corp.

Inquiry 196

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 259

I

GPIB O PC

Hardware Flexibility

Low cost for instrument
control

— 300 K bytes per second

— $395 complete with software

High performance data links

— Maximum speed of GPIB

— On-board buffering

Software

:

I

» Over $1,000,000 in software
development

• Easy to use, yet handles any
GPIB application

• Works with Lotus 1-2-3

• UNIX, DOS and over 12
languages

Applications Support

Applications Library with
sample programs & TIPS for all
major instruments

Full staff of Applications
Engineers dedicated to sup-
port your specific needs

Other IEEE-488 Products

• I nterfaces & Software for

^- Multibus VMEbus
- DECQ-bus&UNIBUS
- STD&S-lOObus

• General GPIB Products

— GPIB Bus Testers

— GPIB Bus Extenders

— Stand- Alone Controllers

NATIONAL

?

1 2 1 09 Technology Boulevard

Austin. TX 78727

1 (800)531 -GPIB

In Texas (800) IEEE-488

Telex: 756737 NAT INST AUS

REVIEW: VME/IO

able UNIX programmers, not begin-
ners. Many commands are quite com-
plex and should be described in more
than a few lines of text. For example,
users would appreciate a well-
commented and nontrivial example of
the use of each command. Moreover,
many procedures, like the implemen-
tation of terminal operations, involve
multiple files, and the required ex-
planations are scattered throughout
different manuals.

APPLICATION PROGRAMS

Motorola publishes a listing of
sources of application software for
operation under the VERSAdos and
UNIX operating systems, but much of
it is not yet ready. The sources for
VERSAdos software included com-
pany telephone numbers that were no
longer in service, programs that were
advertised but never developed, and
others that are to be available soon.
I obtained a C compiler, but it had so
many problems that I could not use it.
Some users groups and universities
provide public-domain C source-code
programs, and a number of books list
small but useful C functions. For ex-
ample, you can obtain the entire text
and program library of Brian W. Ker-
nighan and P. J. Plauger's Software Tools
(Addison-Wesley, 1 976) for a nominal
charge. Finally, AT&T's recently im-
plemented UNIX System Toolchest is
a library of C source-code programs
that currently includes the emacs
editor. Korn shell language, LISP, win-
dowing, and a relational database
manager. Access to the library re-
quires a special $100 AT&T license.
The charges for the software are quite
reasonable, and the programs are dis-
tributed electronically via UNIX's
uucp communication facility.

Maintenance

The Tempe. Arizona, office of
Motorola's Four-Phase Systems Divi-
sion provides VME/10 hardware and
software support. You can reach them
during regular working hours with an
800 number. The staff with whom I
have had contact have been quick,
knowledgeable, and helpful.
You can purchase a full-service con-

Motorola's VME/10 is
expensive, but it is a
well-designed and
well-constructed system.

tract or on-site repair with payment
for time and parts, or you can choose
to ship defective modules to Motorola
for exchange. The full-service contract
provides automatic updating of the
hardware with the latest engineering
changes. On-site maintenance usual-
ly only involves swapping a module.
The 'Ifempe office arranges aid within
a day. Motorola will soon offer a new
service, remote problems analysis,
that will use modem-to-modem com-
munications to provide remote access
to users' systems for evaluating soft-
ware and hardware problems and for
transmitting software patches and
updates.

Motorola frequently updates UNJX
and VERSAdos to provide new capa-
bilities or improved functions. You can
obtain these updates either by having
a software-maintenance contract or
by purchasing the software as it
becomes available. Updates are ex-
pensive, however, and can become a
significant part of the total system
cost. Moreover, significant delays
might exist between the time that
AT&T releases a version and when it
is adapted to the VME/10.

Conclusion

The VME/10 is expensive, but it is a
well-designed and well-constructed
microcomputer system useful for a
variety of business, industrial, and
scientific applications. The hardware
is highly reliable, it has an extensive
set of system software, and Motorola
provides good technical support.
VMEbus modules allows major sys-
tem expansion, and the modular
"Open System" equivalent of the
VME/10 is easy to upgrade. Be
warned, however, that it is not easy to
install UNIX, and applications soft-
ware can be difficult to get. ■

260 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Professional

Modula-2

for $89.

Now the same powerful tools Micropro used
to develop its latest word processing system is
available to you at a new $89.00 price.

Universities are switching to
LOGITECH MODULA-2. Innovative
programmers now develop applica-
tions and products with LOGITECH
MODULA-2. The most productive
teams at major companies depend on
LOGITECH MODULA-2.
Now you can create your professional software devel-
opment system using the proven technical sophistication
of LOGITECH MODULA-2/86.

Systems to Fit Your Needs.

Base Language System ^K&Q

■ Compiler and Linker ^^ -*

■ Module Library

Base Language System/8087 %MQ

■ Inline 8087 code. WlZ,y

Base Language System/512K <ti OQ

■ Full 8087 support. 4>±0 27

■ Uses RAM to increase speed by 40 to 50 percent.

■ 80186 and 80286 support.

Run-Time Debugger $ 6 Q

■ Monitors the execution of a program with
user-defined breakpoints or by stepping through
the program.

■ Symbolically displays the source code, data,
procedure call chain, and raw memory.

MODULA-2 Editor

■ Fast on-line Modula-2 syntax check.

■ Can run compiler and linker from the editor.

■ User definable templates for Modula-2
syntax constructs.

Utilities Package

■ Decoders: Disassemble link and load files.

■ Version: Administrate different versions of one program.

■ Post-Mortem Debugger: Debugs a program after
abnormal termination.

■ Cross Reference: Produces a cross-reference
listing of a Modula-2 program.

Sources 1K1 7Q

■ Sources to customize your system. ^ -*

■ Run-Time System sources.

■ Some library module sources.

Not Copy Protected

$59

$49

INTRODUCTORY OFFER:

Through the end of March you get the new

MODULA-2 Editor for free with any purchase of

the Base Language System.

To place an order call our special toll free number:

800-231-7717

In California:

800-552-8885

YES

I want to create my professional software
^ development system. Please send me the
following building blocks:

DBLS589 □ BLS/8087 $129 □ BLS/512K $189
DRTD$69* □ EDITOR $59*

□ UTILITIES $49* □ SOURCES $179*

*$10 less with the purchase of any Base Language System.
Please add $5 f orshipping and handling.

□ VISA □ MASTERCARD D CHECK ENCLOSED

CARD NUMBER

EXPIRATION DATE

SIGNATURE

NAME

ADDRESS

CITY

STATE

-ZIP,

„PHONE(_

ffl LOGITECH

LOGITECH, Inc.

805 Veterans Blvd., Redwood City,CA 94063, USA

Telephone: (415) 365-9852

LOGITECH SA

Box32,CH-1143 Apples, Switzerland

Telephone: 41 (21) 774545

Inquiry 197

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 261

SYSTEM REVIEW

MacCharlie

A marriage

of radically

different

systems

by Larry Crockett

barry Crockett (731 21st Ave. S.

Minneapolis. MN 55454) is an

assistant professor of mathematics

and computer science at Augsburg

College in Minneapolis. His interests

are in philosophy and artificial

intelligence.

Products that bridge gaps with
claims of "the best of both worlds"
often deliver the worst of each.
Having learned my lesson about bridge
products, ranging from TV-advertised items
that "slice, dice, clean, and sharpen" to in-
tegrated software that often is nine miles
wide and two inches deep, I prepared
myself for disappointment again as I
opened the box labeled "MacCharlie."

I am happy to report that MacCharlie,
from Dayna Communications, is on its way
to being a winner. There are some prob-
lems, but MacCharlie is worth a close look.

MacCharlie consists of three parts (see
photo 1). First, the system unit itself, which
contairis the 8088 processor, 640K bytes of
RAM (random-access read/write memory),
and two 360K-byte 5^-inch disk drives, is
only one-half the size of a Macintosh and
sits on the right side of the standard Mac.
The footprint of the combined Mac/Mac-
Charlie unit totals a very compact 1 5 by II
inches. Second, a keyboard extension that
wraps around the standard Mac keyboard,
providing 10 general function keys on the
left side and an 18-key numeric/specific
function keypad on the right side (see photo
2). Third, three disks and documentation.
A 3 /2-inch disk supplies the Macintosh Mac-
Charlie software and two 5^-inch disks
deliver an MS-DOS 3.1 operating system
and a GW-BASIC interpreter. Documenta-
tion includes a Macintosh-style general in-
troduction and an MS-DOS manual.

As a self -proclaimed bridge product, Mac-
Charlie can be looked at in two distinct
ways. First, it can be viewed as one of the
most expensive, and probably the most in-
triguing, of the 75 or so Macintosh hard-
ware accessories. Physically, it mimics the
distinctive Macintosh styling. Only the
5 ^-inch drives on the front of the unit pro-
vide the tip-off that something decidedly
un-Macintosh is going on inside; Mac-
Charlie is even more spartan than the Mac
in terms of logos and nameplates. Mac-
Charlie provides access to the IBM world

through the familiar Macintosh window.
Outside the window is the Mac environment
with its pull-down menus, desk accessories,
and mouse. Inside the window is the IBM
environment with its power spreadsheets
and powerful operating systems.

Second. MacCharlie can be viewed as an
IBM Personal Computer clone that requires
a Mac monitor and a keyboard. Its 8088
processor runs at the conventional
4.77-MHz clock frequency. It supports MS-
DOS and other IBM PC-compatible operat-
ing systems that don't depend on IBM ROM
(read-only memory). It supports the 8087
math coprocessor, and it should run the
majority of IBM PC software. Its perfor-
mance is comparable to a standard PC:
MacCharlie ran the Sieve of Eratosthenes
in 184 seconds, compared to 191 seconds
for the IBM PC. A promised optional expan-
sion chassis will purportedly offer the Mac-
Charlie owner the ability to expand the
system with various PC-compatible add-on
cards and other hardware.

Setting Up

Setting up the system is quite simple. You
connect the base that supports the Macin-
tosh to the MacCharlie unit. Then you slide
the Mac keyboard into the MacCharlie
wraparound keyboard; the Mac keyboard
cable connects to the MacCharlie keyboard,
which, in turn, connects to the Macintosh
with a similar cable.

Around back, things are somewhat busier
but are still manageable (see the photo in
the "At a Glance" section). The Mac power
cable is replaced by a short cable, and the
reassigned Apple cable provides the entire
MacCharlie with power. The Mac's printer
port is connected to a port on MacCharlie;
the printer port on MacCharlie serves the
system. Both the modem port and the ex-
ternal drive port on the Mac remain open
for use with MacCharlie connected.

The MacCharlie disk uses Finder 4.1 and
the MiniFinder so that, after the opening
screen appears, you are presented with the

262 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

MiniFinder screen with two programs avail-
able for opening. If you choose "Mac-
Charlie," the printer port is used to commu-
nicate with the MS-DOS side and Mac-
Charlie expects the Imagewriter to be the
printer. If you choose "MacCharlie A," how-
ever, the modem port is used and Mac-
Charlie is set up to use Applel&lk and the
LaserWriter.

I have been informed by Dayna that the
drives on all but the earliest units are
Panasonic drives, even though the literature
says that the drives are manufactured by
both Control Data and Panasonic. The
drives on the units I tested were quiet and
smooth. I even managed to get them to for-
mat and use old 5^ -inch disks that were
rated single-sided single-density. No disks
died and I lost no data during the test
period.

As figures 1 and 2 illustrate, MacCharlie
adheres closely to the standard Macintosh
interface. Dayna claims that Mac desktop
utilities will work in MS-DOS mode and that
they can be installed in the usual fashion.
However, with one desk accessory Mac-
TVacks, I did experience some difficulty.
Given MacCharlie's technically complicated
interface, you should try to check out a desk
accessory before buying it.

TWO WORLDS

Each of the two systems, Macintosh/Finder
and IBM PC/MS-DOS, has its advantages.
For example, if I want to do word process-
ing or graphics, the Mac wins hands down.
On the other hand— at least until the ap-
pearance of the more powerful spread-
sheets such as Jazz and Excel— doing large
spreadsheet work meant choosing MS-DOS.
But even with the deluge of powerful Mac
software, I still find that manipulating files
is done best in the MS-DOS environment,
with its filtering, piping, and batch
processing.

Dayna stresses the "synergistic" potential
of this system and, while the easy invoca-
tion of trendy terms such as "synergistic"

generally irritates me, in this case it is apt.
Suppose, for example, that I have a list of
names in a Mac Word document that I want
to sort alphabetically. I could, using
Switcher, copy the list via the Clipboard
over to Multiplan or File and perform the
sort. But that is like using a semi to get a
half-gallon of milk at the store. With Mac-
Charlie, using several keystrokes, I port the
list over to MS-DOS, which has a nice sort
utility, sort it, and port it back to the Mac.
Moreover, with the powerful manipulation
tools available in MS-DOS through piping,
filtering, and batch processing, you can
develop routines that dramatically increase
the versatility and power of the ever-friendly
Finder when that power is needed. Even
UNIX tools, according to Dayna, can be
brought to bear on tasks done in a Mac en-

[continued)

Photo I: A Macintosh with MacCharlie attached.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 263

REVIEW: MACCHARLIE

vironment using MacCharlie.

| Editor's note: MacCharlie automatically
formats text data as it is transferred to the
receiving machine. That is. MS-DOS text files
are stripped of carriage returns and linefeeds
during transmission to the Mac (making it
suitable for Mac Write) or these characters are
added to a Mac text file transmitted to Mac-
Charlie. This formatting of data can lengthen
the amount of time it takes to transfer a file.

Transferring a 40K-byte file took 41 seconds
from Macintosh to MacCharlie and 220 sec-
onds from MacCharlie to Macintosh. Mac-
Charlie was allowed to format the data for
the destination system, which means that the
resulting file could be larger or smaller]

Running the other direction, having
most of the Mac interface available for
use in the MS-DOS window is par-
ticularly welcome. MS-DOS users who

£ File Edit Commands Keyboard

MacCharlie

Phoenix ROM BIGS Ver 2.63

Copyr i ght 1 384., 1 885 Phoen i x Software fissoc i ates Ltd .

R I ! " R i ghts Reserved

RRM Test 640k

Compat i h i I i ttj Software

Copyright <c> 1984,85 by Phoenix Software Associates Ltd.

MS-DOS version 3.16

(OCopyright 1981,85 Microsoft Corp.

o

Command M . 3.10 COCopyr i ght M i crosoft Corp 1 981

Current date is Sat 8-10-1885
Enter- new date <mm-dd-yy > :

c

a:

ti i W ft W ft ft ^ Wft^

Clipboard

Calculator

WuXSEt

Qtatao

£

Figure I : MS-DOS comes up as a Mac window on the Mac desktop. This window
can be sized and moved like any Mac window. Mac desk accessories remain available,
as do many— but not all— Mac editing procedures.

t i i t ijtt

iiiiiiini

\ 1 1 1

■in

aval
in -

Photo 2: The MacCharlie function keys and numeric keypad attach to
the Macintosh keyboard.

like SideKick on the IBM PC for ex-
ample, can use Macintosh SideKick
(which improves on the original) on
the MS-DOS side. Having the Mac
Clipboard available in PC programs is
also a boon.

MacCharlie does support Lotus
1-2-3, with the exception of the graph-
ics module, as illustrated in figure 3.
Hence, MacCharlie passes one con-
ventional test of IBM PC compatibili-
ty. However, owing to slow screen re-
freshing on the Macintosh, Mac-
Charlie does not support I-2-3's
graphics. Early MacCharlie observers
suggested that the bottleneck lies in
the relatively slow serial ports on the
Mac, but I suspect the problem lies
more in the overworked 68000 in the
Macintosh. Graphics programs and
modules with modest refresh needs
may work; the rest will not. The list of
compatible software I saw from Dayna
is respectable, but the company
should also maintain a list of incom-
patible software in order to save users
the headache of having to play Sher-
lock Holmes of the MS-DOS world.

Impressive is the fact that Mac-
Charlie RAM can be used as a printer
buffer for the Mac provided that there
is not an application running on the
MacCharlie side. This works well in
draft mode, but it is little help in
medium- or high-quality mode—
again, because the 68000 is so busy.
However, Mac RAM cannot be used
as a buffer for the MacCharlie side.
Dayna promises that future releases
of MacCharlie software will enable the
Mac to use the MacCharlie drives for
storage space but, again, not vice
versa.

What Makes MacCharlie
Tick?

Inside MacCharlie are two central pro-
cessing units, an 8088 and an
8032AH running at 12 MHz. The
8032, which has its own ROM, RAM,
and I/O ports, provides the link be-
tween the 8088 and the 68000. In its
world, according to Dayna, the 8088
knows nothing of the Macintosh; the
8032 keeps track of both the 68000
and the 8088. When a key is pressed,

{continued)

264 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

AT A GLANCE

Name

MacCharlie

Type

Macintosh accessory that
provides MS-DOS capabilities

Company

Dayna Communications Inc.
50 South Main St.
Salt Lake City, UT 84144
(801) 531-0600

Size

14 by 15 by 11 inches,

15 pounds

Components

Display: Uses Macintosh

9-inch screen

Keyboard: 10-key function

pad with 18-key numeric pad;

supplements the Macintosh

58-key software-mapped

keyboard

Processors: Intel 8088,

8032AH

Memory: 640K bytes

Mass storage: Two 360K-byte

double-sided double-density

5 1 /4-inch disk drives

Hardware Needed

Either a 128K-byte or 512K-
byte Macintosh

Software

MS-DOS 3.1, GW-BASIC,
MacCharlie applications
programs

Options

8087 can be installed by
dealer ($199)

Price

$1795 (price without
Macintosh)

MEMORY SIZE { K BYTES)
200 400 600

DISK STORAGE ( K BYTES)
00 1000 400 800 1200 1600 2000

I

1

BUNDLED SOFTWARE PACKAGES
2 4 6

PRICE ($ 1000)
2 4

E

MACCHARLIE

IBM PC

APPLE HE

The Memory Size graph shows the standard
and optional memory available for the
computers under comparison. The Disk
Storage graph shows the highest capacity for
a single floppy-disk drive and the maximum
standard capacity for each system. The
Bundled Software Packages graph shows the
number of software packages included with
each system. The Price Graph shows the list

price of a MacCharlie system with two high-
capacity disk drives, keyboard extension, and
640K bytes of memory. The other systems in-
clude two disk drives, monochrome monitor,
graphics and color-display capability, a printer
port and a serial port, 256K bytes (64K for 8-bit
systems), the standard operating system for
each system, and the standard BASIC inter-
preter for each system.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 265

The rear of the Macintosh/MacCharlie systems. Note that the Mac Inside the MacCharlie unit. An Intel 8032AH connects the two
gets its power from the MacCharlie unit. The Mac printer port is systems,
dedicated to communicating with MacCharlie.

DISK ACCESS IN BASIC (SEC)
250

150

100

50

55 56

37

46

29

36 "

READ

SYSTEM UTILITIES (SEC)
50

30

20

10

45

12

5.8

40K FORMAT/DISK COPY 40K FILE COPY

L M MACCHARLIE

The graphs for Disk Access i n BASIC show how long it takes to write
a 64K-byte sequential text file to a blank floppy disk and how long
it takes to read this file. (For the program listings, see June 1984
BYTE, page 334, and October 1984, page 33.) In the BASIC Perfor-
mance graph, the Sieve results show how long it takes to run one
iteration of the Sieve of Eratosthenes prime-number benchmark. The
Calculations column shows how long it takes to do 10,000 multiplica-
tion and 10,000 division operations using single-precision numbers.
The System Utilities graph shows how long it takes to format and

BASIC PERFORMANCE (SEC)
250

200

150

SIEVE

SPREADSHEET (SEC)
25

CALCULATIONS

20

15

10

18

8 8.1

10

11

LOAD
IBM PC V//A APPLE HE

RECALCULATE

copy a disk (adjusted for 40K bytes of disk data) and to transfer a
40K-byte file using the system utilities. The Spreadsheet graph shows
how long the computers take to load and recalculate a 25- by 25-cell
spreadsheet where each cell equals 1.001 times the cell to its left.
The spreadsheet program used was Microsoft's Multiplan. Tests for
the Apple lie were done with the ProDOS operating system, except
for the spreadsheet test, which was done with DOS 3.3. The IBM
PC was tested running under PC-DOS 2.0, and MacCharlie was
tested running MS-DOS 3.1.

266 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Amazing New Advancements
for an Old Friend,

ZBasic is an incredibly advanced and
powerful BASIC— but— it's still the old BASIC
you're used to. Instead of spending 6 months of
your life learning another complicated language, let
ZBasic put your programs into light-speed, now!
( If you know BASIC, you know ZBasic.)

How Fast is ZBasic?

Lightening fast. Fouryears of intense
development have produced the ultimate BASIC.
ZBasic is "Compiled BASIC," and generates stand-
alone applications that make any other BASIC
completely obsolete. Just look at these speed
comparisons.

^HiSTEST EASIEST, MOST
POWERFUL BASIC EVER!

ZBASIC Compiler
Turbo Pascal Compiler
BASIC Interpreter

13.7 seconds

14.1 seconds

2190 seconds

Sieve from BYTE, Jan., 1983 on an IBM PC, 10 iterations.

Compiler Speed/Interpreter
Ease.

Like a BASIC interpreter, ZBasic allows you to write
and execute your programs immediately! No messy
"Linkers," "Loaders," or clumsy "Subroutine
Packages" like most other compilers. To compile
and edit, simply type "RUN." Debugging works the
same as the interpreter, too. Just type "BREAK" or
"CTRL C" to get back to the editor.

Lightning-Fast Compilation.

Computer Language Magazine says.
"Compilation is amazingly fast..." After typing
"RUN," ZBasic compiles your program at blinding
speed — 40 lines per second .

Works the Same on All
Computers.

If you're tired of throwing away your old
programs every time you switch to a new computer,
ZBasic is for you. Source code is portable from one
computer to another, and since ZBasic uses Device
Independent Graphics and Disk File commands,
your programs automatically "Adapt" to any other
computer. And the ZBASIC editor is the same
on all versions— regardless of the computet.

Einstein Math.

ZBasic offers programmers a math
package that surpasses anything else in the
industry! (Yes. ZBasic is even better than
FORTRAN, PASCAL, MODULA-2 or any other
language available!) You will have up to 54
digits of user-selectable accuracy at your power

9

"Superb Documentation!"

"The 387 page ZBasic manual is a model
of clarity and organization. The documentation is
superb, solidifying our impression that someone
worked incredibly hard to make ZBasic a
benchmark for all other BASIC Compilers."

PC WEEK, Nov. 12, 1985

Easy Structure— If You Want It.

ZBasic helps you "Structure" your
programs in a way that's easy and simple... you
may use GOSUB or GOTO with names or line
numbers. Supports multi-line LONG IFs and
LONG FNs. LIST programs with — or without — line
numbers! ZBasic automatically indents loops and
structures in LISTings, too.

"Awesome! It's about time! Great!
Unbelievable! " J.R.CPA

Seymour, MO

" ....fast, generates stand alone programs,
requires only modest amounts of memory, has
outstanding compilation speeds and.. .was bug
free and felt solid. And the price is very
attractive. " Bruce W. Tonkin

COMPUTER LANGUAGE

" ZBasic is a powerful offering for BASIC
programmers. It provides the flexibility of Turbo
Pascal and the speed of compiled BASIC, all at a
price that can't be matched. Kudos to Zedcor and to
all users who make wise decisions to use ZBasic to
the fullest. " Garry Ray

PC WEEK

"The best I have ever seen. I love it! You should
be proud of this product. " R.R. Manager

Mesa, AZ

Mind-blower! Easily the best BASIC I've ever

J.D.
Baltimore, MD

VERSIONS
SHIPPING NOW:

IBM PC/ XT/AT, APPLE
//e-//c, TRS-80 (1,3) (4)
CP/M-80, MACINTOSH,
KAYPRO Graphics

Special MAC Features:

• Window, Menu and Mouse Support

• Complete TEXT control

• QuickDraw and Interface calls support

- Long Integers (Range ±2,147,483,648)

• MacTalk Voice Synthesizer support

• AppleTalk Network support

- Supports both Serial Ports

• Sieve: ZBasic: 8.2seconds,
MBASIC: 2.0 (d):960 seconds.

• Programs and variables each up to 8 MB!

G\,_ p • Math accuracy up to 240 digits!
(1 • No limit to INDEXS and ARRAY variable

memory use!

seen!

I
I
I

ONLY ZBASIC GIVES YOU
THESE FEATURES:

Highlights errors... makes debugging easy!
Not Copy Protected

Never any Royalties or Runtime fees for
programs you sell.

Direct commands (Speeds logic testing like an

interpreter)

Super Single-Step debug

CHAIN with variable passing. (Shareall orsome

variables)

Create transportable subroutines and functions

Multi-line LONG IF. Multi-line LONG FNs

Decimal, HEX, OCTal or BINary support.

Device-independent Graphics and File I/O.

Never does String "Garbage Collection"

Comes with "Quick" and "Shell" sort source

code

Built in "HELP" screens lets you get answers

fast.

Long variable name (15 characters)

Loops: WHILE-WEND, DO-UNTIL, FOR-NEXT-

STEP

Serial Port and Modem support

Easily load your old BASIC programs saved in

ASCII

YOU BET! Send me ZBasic right away! $89.95 complete.

CREDIT CARO-MASTERCARD/VISA'AMEX/COO

Card Expiration Date:.
My computer is a

MAIL TO: ZEDCOR, INC

Name

Address

APT. a

City

State

Zip

Support: (602) 7

Inquiry 364 for End-Users. Inquiry 365 for DEALERS ONLY.

FEBRUARY 1 986 • BYTE 267

REVIEW: MACCHARLIE

Commands Keyboard

Figure 2: Using the Macintosh interface on the MS-DOS window. Here the mouse is
used to select a line of text in the MS-DOS window and copy it to the Clipboard.
Clipboard contents can be pasted on either the MS-DOS or Finder side. Note that the
unavailable options. Cut and Clear, are dimmed in accordance with Macintosh
convention.

6 File Edit Commands Keyboard

MacCharlie

Lotus Recess System U.lfi (01983 Lotus Development Corp.

l^^Sa F i I e-Manager D i sK-Manager Pr i ntGraph Trans I ate Ex i t
Enter 1-2-3 — Lotus Spreadsheet/Graphics /Database program

Sun 29-Sept-85
2:42:21pm

Use the arrow Keys to highlight command choice and press CEnter).
Press [Esc] to cancel a choice: Press CF1 3 for information on command choices

2L

Figure 3: lotus 1-2-3 running on MacCharlie. lotus 1-2-3, except for the graphics
module, will run on the Macintosh now. 1-2-3 files should be convertible to ]azz files
using MacCharlie and \j)tus's conversion utility. Most MS-DOS software— except games
and some graphics programs or modules— should run on MacCharlie. Dayna
Communications maintains a list of compatible software.

the 803 2 presents an interrupt to the
8088; hence MacCharlie works with
an interrupt-driven interface. Since its
service overhead is relatively high, the
interrupt interface is another bottle-
neck in the Mac-to-PC connection.
Dayna has informed me that it is at-
tempting to implement a DMA (direct
memory access) interface, which
should speed things up enough to
work well with hard disks in the prom-
ised expansion chassis.

MacCharlie's ROM is a custom
ROM, but an off-the-shelf IBM PC
ROM could have been used. The cus-
tomization is apparently designed
more to satisfy patent lawyers than
enhance performance. The BIOS
(basic input/output system) was writ-
ten by Phoenix Software Associates.

evidence of a premature
Release

Nevertheless, I found evidence that
MacCharlie was brought to market
somewhat prematurely. For example,
some menu options are permanent-
ly dimmed because they are not yet
available. Several addenda to the
user's manual refer to features "that
have not been implemented yet."
Some Dayna manuals claim that Mac-
Charlie is compatible with the Apple
LaserWriter on the Applel^lk network,
and some say it is not. Leaving every-
thing to chance, I attempted to make
the link but failed. Dayna concedes
that MacCharlie cannot be used as a
printer buffer when used in conjunc-
tion with the LaserWriter. Since those
people who invest in both a Mac and
a MacCharlie will also often have a
LaserWriter and will want the printer-
buffer feature, this is a definite short-
coming.

Being a fan of Switcher, I was disap-
pointed to read that MacCharlie does
not yet work with it. I tried anyway.
The predictable result (with Switcher
2 .0) was a serious system error and a
complete crash. I did find that
Switcher 4.4 works relatively well with
MacCharlie 1.8. The exception was
operations involving the serial port
(for example, attempting to print a
file). Dayna claims that MacCharlie

[continued)

268 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

Offering DataBASICftks for IBM PC Users.

At Last, Data Programs

So Perfect

Only You Would Have

Thought Of Them!

Data base packages are seldom perfect
for your particular needs. You realize
that, yet...

You want to create your own programs
and file structures, and you know you
are capable of doing them, but it takes
too much time.

Now, DataBASICft/^s creates the time for
you by automatically passing data to and
from your BASIC programs and your
DataBASIC/?/ttS files. Yes, DataBASICp/^
is just that — a data base file handler
which interfaces your BASIC language
programs for PC/DOS and MS/DOS.

You can experience the same advantages

Plus Features of DataBASIQfe

• Structured Relational Data Access

• Data Base Creation Utility

• BASIC Language Interface Commands

• Sophisticated File Handling Capability

• Full Screen Format Data Entry

• Functional Data Base Analysis

• Rapid Maintenance Capability

• Versatile Backup/RestoretltiJities

For IBM PC and Compatibles.

H» = ^r= = -^=

<$*£:

Tominu

Creativity through Automation
DataBASI(ft/«.s
4221 Malsbary Road
Cincinnati, Ohio 45242

mainframe programmers have, but with-
out the excessive costs.

DataBASIC/?/^ implements your
solutions. You can have complete control
over your data base structures. You have
it your way!

DataBASICft/^s performs... and you can
get the results automatically for only
$74.95. (Retail Value $99-95)

Just be sure you use our coupon. If
someone else has already grabbed it,
that's serious business. So call us on our
toll-free number 1-800-543-8628.
In Ohio: (513) 984-6605.

DataBASItyto
$25.00 OFF COUPON!

(Ofier Expires March 31, 1986.)
Send me DataBASiq£/Ms

Single User, Copy Protected @ $74.96

Single User, Un-Protected @ $9935 — -

Add $5 per copy US shipping &

handling, $10 foreign

Ohio residents Ml 5^2% sales tax _

Total Amount of Order f $_

'-.□ Check or Money Order enclosed.

Charge my □ Master Card □ Visa Card

Account No. I 1 11 1 I 1 1 Mill]
Expires—- _

Name , — £

0666/86

Address.
City

_ State .

. Zip_

Telephones-
Signature ,,..',■.,

SEND NOW! OR ORDER IMMEDIATELY BY PHONE!

IBM and PC are registered trademarks of Internationa! Business Machines Corp.

Inquiry 336

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 269

REVIEW: MACCHARLIE

2.0, released in October, is fully com-
patible with Switcher. {Editor's note: A
quick check of MacCharlie 2.0 with Switcher
4.4 showed no problems]

These difficulties are almost inevit-
able, given the newness of the prod-
uct and the complexity of the task. In-
terfacing two systems as different as
the Macintosh Finder and MS-DOS is

technically quite complicated.

There are obvious bugs in the sys-
tem. For instance, after using a Finder
application first, I often found it im-
possible to access MS-DOS— Mac-
Charlie informed me that it had failed
to establish communications with MS-
DOS. Once in such an interface stand-
off, it became impossible to reestab-

UNLOCK Removes
Copy Protection

RUNS YOUR SOFTWARE ON ANY HARD DISK

• Produce non-protected
DOS copies from popular
software programs.

• for /BM 9 PC, X7; AT,
compatibles

Currently supports only
programs listed below:

UNIock ALBUM

$49.95

Plus $4 ship/
handling

•LOTUS 1-2-3™ (1.A.1.A-, 2.0)

• dBASE III™ (to. 1.1 & 12)
•FRAMEWORK™ (to, 1.1, id

• SYSTAT™ (1.3 & 2.0)

• SPOTLIGHT™ (to & 1.1)

• GRAPHWRITER™ (4 3 & 4.31)

• REALIA COBOL™ (1.2, 2.0)

UNIock ALBUM "B"

(^ylQ QC PIUS S 4 Sn ' p/

v4wiWW handling

• SYMPHONY™ (to & 1.1)

• CLIPPER™ (Winter 84, Summer 85)

• ELECTRIC DESK™ p.04)

• DOUBLEDOS™

• MANAGING YOUR MONEY™

(1.5 & 1.51)

• smARTWORK™(i.o rev s,rev 9)

• DATA BASE MANAGER II™

(2.0, 2.02)

UNIock ALBUM "C

^■frjggjfO handling

• MICROSOFT WORD™

(1.5, 2.0, 2.01)

• MULTILINK ADVANCE™ (3.02)

• IBM WRITING ASSISTANT™(i.oi)

• LOTUS 1-2-3 REPORT
WRITER™(i.o)

• PARADOX™ (to)

• PFS ACCESS™ (1984 Edition)

• THINKTANK™ (2.0)

TranSec UNIock is a unique software copying
disk that removes copy protection, providing
standard non-protected DOS copies. UNIock runs
on IBM® PC, XT, AT, and compatibles with
256K or more, DOS 2.0 or higher.

BACKUP COPIES. UNIock safely and easily
makes backup copies.

RUN ON HARD DISK. Programs load faster,
use less disk space and work with any hard disk,
including Bernoulli Boxes. No longer do you
need the original in drive "A".

RUN ON RAM DISK. UNIock is the only
software that can run copy protected software on
a RAM disk or micro-floppy.

EASY TO USE. 1) type UNIock. 2) Select
program destination. 3) Insert program disk.

SAFE ORIGINAL. UNIock does not alter your
original distribution disk. UNIock works by
creating a copy of your distribution disk on a hard
or floppy disk. It then removes copy protection
from the copy!

Recommended by the editors of:

Personal

computing

'The Be I Software Utilities For Under $100"

ORDER TODAY BY TELEPHONE!

1 -305-474-7548

jftmsEC

TranSec Systems, Inc., 1802-200 North University Drive, Plantation, FL 33322

Trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners. • UNIock is For Use Only to Improve the Useability of Legally
Acquired and Operated Software.

Inquiry 340

270 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

lish the link. It should be noted that
MacCharlie handled such difficulties
gracefully by allowing me to attempt
to establish communications again or
to exit; it never crashed under such
circumstances. I eventually learned
that I could overcome such a dead
end by turning the entire system off,
doing a cold boot, and opening MS-
DOS first. Or, you can often avoid the
problem by invoking MacCharlie im-
mediately upon powering up instead
of using the Mac side first. But this is
not acceptable performance.

Documentation

The documentation is good. Mac-
Charlie's 1 00-page user's guide comes
in the now-familiar Macintosh style. It
is attractive, generally well written,
and covers most topics in enough
detail to get you comfortable with the
system. However, the technically
minded will be disappointed because
it is not written for the hobbyist or
programmer. Also, I found the adden-
dum to the user's guide to be less
clear and organized than the main
manual. As I've noted, it also has
some inconsistencies.

Conclusion

If Dayna can eliminate some of the
early bugs and deliver on both the
promises it has made and the prom-
ise of this system, MacCharlie will be
a successful and useful bridge be-
tween two popular microcomputer
systems. The potential of this system
is significant for people who need
monochrome PC/Macintosh limited
compatibility and integration. A
remarkable and intriguing effort. Mac-
Charlie largely— but not entirely—
succeeds in what it attempts to do.
On balance, I like the system and
would say it is worth a look if you can
justify the $1795 expense and believe
that you need what it has to offer. I
am unwilling to relinquish mine now
that I have become accustomed to
having it. After spending a month with
MacCharlie. I do not want to go back
to a conventional Macintosh, in spite
of MacCharlie's several shortcomings.
There's too much freedom on the
bridge between the worlds. ■

Inquiry 33 — ►

ssa

' hed ata you-,, h

imp

BASF QUALIMETRIC' M 5.25" FLEXYDISKf

m:

\\\\v\\\m

\ i i

Why the Hercules Color Card is
better for your XT than IBM's.

Did you know that there's a color
graphics card specially designed for the
XT™? It's called the Hercules™ Color Card. We
think that it's better for your XT than the
IBM® Color Graphics Adapter. Here's why.

The XT comes with an empty short slot.
IBM's card is too long to fit in it, so you're
forced to sacrifice a valuable long slot, while
your XT's short slot goes unused.

The Hercules Color Card is designed to
fit in this short slot. It's the smartest way
to maximize the usable slots in an XT and
provide for your future expansion needs.

Notice how much more efficiently
Hercules makes use of the XT's slots.

Our efficient use of an XT's slots is not
the only reason to buy a Hercules Color
Card instead of IBM's. We give you a
parallel printer port at no extra cost. (IBM
charges extra and takes up another slot.)

A lot of people wonder how Hercules
can do everything that IBM can in a card
less than half the size. We do it by designing
our own graphics microchips. Just one of our
chips packs the punch of dozens of IBM's,
reducing by more than 50% the number of
components that can fail.

And we'll do just about anything to
make our products the most reliable you
can buy.

mi

Hercules

IBM

Of course, you will have to give up
something when you buy a Hercules Color
Card. You'll have to give up software incom-
patibility. With Hercules, there is none.
Every program that runs on the IBM color
card will run on the Hercules Color Card.

You'll have to give up IBM's ninety day
warranty. Ours is two years.

IBM

de

Compare warranties

3 months

mm

And you'll have to give up a dollar. The
Hercules Color Card is $245-IBM's is $244.

Look into the Hercules Color Card
for the XT, PC or AT: Find out why the
readers of PC World voted the Hercules
Color Card 1985's best color graphics
card-ahead of IBM's. Call 1 800 532-0600
Ext. 432 for the name of the dealer nearest
you and we'll rush you our free info kit.

Hercules.

inquiry 1 5 5 We're strong on graphics.

Address: 2550 Ninth St., Berkeley, CA 94710 Ph: 415540-6000 lelex: 754063 Trademarks/Owners: Hercules/Hercules Computer lechnology; IBM, XT, AT/IBM. Printer cable offer
expires February 28, 1986. Good only in U.S.A., offer subject to change without notice.

Release 2.15
has improved
math libraries

BY DAYLE S. WOOLSTON

Dayle S. Woolston (175 West

1300 North, Pleasant Grove. UT

84062) is a systems programmer

with Wicat Systems Inc.. working on

educational software and authoring

systems. His interests [besides

computer science) include foreign

languages, current events, and

carpentry.

SOFTWARE REVIEW

Lattice's 8086/8088
C Compiler

Lattice has continued to improve its
8086/8088 C compiler. Release 2.15
includes major improvements in the
speed and accuracy of the math libraries,
a new command-line option, refinements,
and bug fixes.

Kernigan and Ritchie's text, The C Program-
ming Language (Prentice-Hall, 1978), is not
always explicit and complete; therefore, it
is crucial that Lattice state its interpreta-
tion of various aspects of the language. The
manual points out that the Lattice compiler
departs from the Kernigan and Ritchie stan-
dard in two categories. The first defines dif-
ferences that are lexical or syntactical, and
the second describes differences that are
imposed on the developers of any compiler
by practical limitations. Some of these dif-
ferences and limitations are:

• In the standard C definition, comments
may not be nested. A compile-time option
allows you to override this rule. You can
then easily comment out large blocks of
code during development.

• Identically written string constants refer
to the same static storage location, whereas
in the standard they are considered unique.

• The compiler must be able to identify the
expression preceding the ■ or ->
operators as a structure, or a pointer to a
structure of a specific type. This rule is used
to identify both the offset and specific at-
tributes of individual structure members.

• Structure members having the same
name but belonging to different structures
are considered unique by this compiler. I
have used C compilers in which the name
of a structure member may not be used in
another structure, which can be incon-
venient.

• The maximum constant expression defin-
ing an array subscript is one less than the
largest signed integer (32766 for 16 bits).

• The maximum length of any input source
line may not exceed 2 56 bytes.

• Macros may not have more than eight
arguments.

These assumptions, exceptions, and limita-
tions are cross-referenced with Appendix
A of the Kernighan and Ritchie text.

The 8086/8088 version of the Lattice C
compiler is a two-pass compiler. (Lattice
calls these passes phases.) Each pass is ex-
ecuted by a separate program. The basic
function of the first pass is to syntactically
and lexically analyze a source file and per-
form all necessary preprocessor functions.
This pass generates symbol tables and pro-
duces intermediate files that are to be pro-
cessed by the second pass. The second
pass of the compiler takes these inter-
mediate files and produces an object file
in the MS-DOS format.

The Lattice compiler allows you great flex-
ibility in determining the characteristics of
the resulting object module. These charac-
teristics are specified by parameters sup-
plied to each compiler pass. Here are some
compile-time options:

• The size of the compiler's execution stack
has a default value of 2048 bytes. One
compile-time parameter permits you to ad-
just it as required.

• The Lattice compiler attempts to hold
values in registers as long as possible. An
actual assignment to a memory location is
not made until a change in control flow oc-
curs, such as a call to another function. This
feature, used to improve performance, can
be suppressed.

• The compiler normally aligns all program
code pointers, structures, and unions on a
word boundary. An option cancels this
alignment.

• One symbol may be defined at compile
time. This symbol definition is treated as if
the symbol were declared in the source by
a #define command.

• A path prefix may be specified that
defines a default path (or drive) for locating
#include files.

• The developer can force word alignment
for all data elements except char. This can

[continued)

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 273

REVIEW: LATTICE C

AT A GLANCE

Name

Lattice 8086/8088 C Compiler
version 2.15

Type

Two-pass compiler

Company

Lattice Inc.

POB 3072

Glen Ellyn, IL 60138

(312) 858-7950

Format

Three 5 1 /4-inch master disks,
copy-protected

not

Computer

IBM PC with 128K bytes of memory
and two floppy-disk drives or one
floppy-disk drive and one hard-disk
drive

Documentation

One manual

Price

$500

be advantageous to reduce the extra
clock cycles consumed by the 8086
central processing unit in fetching a
word from an odd byte address.

A new compile-time option in-
cluded in release 2.15 causes the first
pass of the compiler to execute pre-
processing only and write the
resulting source file to disk. No inter-
mediate file is produced.

The Lattice C compiler supports
four memory models: S, R D, and L.
One of these memory models must
be selected at compile time and used
for all object files that are linked to
form the executable file. In choosing
one of these memory models, you
can tune a particular program to a
suitable level of efficiency as well as
to a useful range of addressability.

The S model is the smallest. It has
a program address space of 64K
bytes and a data address space of
64K bytes. The P model has a pro-
gram address space of up to 1 mega-
byte and a data address space of 64K
bytes. The D model has a program ad-
dress space of 64K bytes and a data
address space of up to I megabyte.
The L model has program and data
address spaces of up to I megabyte.
The manual provides a good discus-
sion of each model and how it uses
the segmented architecture of the
8086.

Object modules compiled under a
specific model must be linked to
libraries under that same model.
There are two library modules fur-
nished with each model. The first
(LC.LIB) is for programs without float
or double operations, and the second
(LCM.LIB) supports these data types.
You can reduce the size of an execut-
able file by not linking in floating-point
libraries where they are not needed.

The Lattice compiler supports the
standard data types: char (8 bits), int
(16 bits), short (16 bits), unsigned (16
bits), long (32 bits), float (32 bits), and
double (64 bits). 'types int and short
are equivalent. In its discussion of
data types, the Kernighan and Ritchie
text states that unsigned is a modifier
that may be applied only to variables
of type int. In the Lattice implemen-

tation, unsigned is a data type, not a
modifier. Therefore, there is no un-
signed long or unsigned char. I have
used compilers that support un-
signed long and unsigned char data
types. These proved useful in several
instances, but the Lattice compiler
seems to hold closer to the accepted
standard in this respect. Lattice in-
dicates that this version of its com-
piler does not support register
variables because of the small
number of registers available on the
8086.

The Lattice implementation has the
usual categories of functions that you
might expect with a C compiler. There
are functions to handle memory al-
location, file I/O (input/output), tran-
scendental, and string processing.
The presentation of each portable
library function in the documentation
is very well organized. Each function
is explained clearly. In preparing for
this article, I wrote several programs
from scratch. Of course, I referred to
the manual in many instances for
descriptions of functions, parameters,
and return values. I found this section
complete and easy to use.

I have worked extensively with an-
other 8086 C compiler on a substan-
tial software project. The other com-
piler had a larger selection of portable
library functions; however, I needed
only the functions that are supplied
with the Lattice compiler. It's safe to
say that while the Lattice package
does not have the number of func-
tions provided by the other compiler,
the selection of functions offered is
complete for a reasonable implemen-
tation of a C compiler.

There are three levels of memory al-
location provided with the Lattice
compiler. The first level of functions
offers a UNIX-compatible memory-
allocation facility. There is overhead
associated with the use of this class
of memory functions, but UNIX por-
tability is achieved. The second level
of memory-allocation functions is not
UNIX-compatible but is a more effi-
cient implementation under DOS. The
third level consists of primitives that
can be used to construct more sophis-

(continued)

274 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

electronic components I

#£k»

1355 SHOREWAY ROAD O Competitive Prices Authorized JIM-PAK Distributors '

BELMONT, CA 94002 Z Distributors Welcome Z For information call (415) 595-5936 Telex #176043

l 9 *6

:</i

COMPUTER
ACCESSORIES

JE860

Part No. JE232CM

RS232 Interface (For Commodore VIC-20 8 C-6-1)

Part No. JE860

16K RAM Card (For Apple II & II+)

Part No. JE864

80-Column/64K RAM (For Apple lie)

Part No. JE875

Disk Drive Controller (For Apple II, II+ S lie)

Part No. M1 008K

RAM Expansion (For TRS-80 Model 100)

Part No. KHP4007

Switching Power Supply (For Apple ll.ll+Jle)

DATA BOOKS

... o

■Si
30024/30025

Part No. 30013

Zilog Microprocessor Data Book

Part No. 30021

National CMOS Data Book

Part No. 30024

Tl Understanding Data Communications

Part No. 30025

Tl Understanding Telephone Communications

Part No. 30029

Motorola MC6800 Data Book

Part No. 205775

Intel MCS 80/85 Family Dser's Manual

INTEGRATED
CIRCUITS

MICROPROCESSORS

Part No. 281 6A

16K (E)EPROM (350ns)

Part No. 6802

MPU - 8-Bit with Clock and RAM

Part No. 8279-5

Prog. Keyboard/Display Interface

Part No. 8748

MPU- HMOS EPROM

Part No. 27256

256K EPROM (250ns)

Part No. 41 256-1 5

256K Dynamic RAM (150ns)

TOOLS

PLIER-5

Part No. Cutter-5

Diagonal/Side Cutter (4% inch)

Part No. Hemo-1

Hemostat {5 inch Straight Tip)

Part No. Plier-5

Five Piece Plier Set (5 inch)

Part No. Probe-40

4 Piece Probe Set (5% to 6tt inch)

Part No. Tweezer-2

Tweezer (Dumont 4Vfe inch Curved)

* PARTIAL LISTING

JIM-PAK AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTORS

ALABAMA

Birmingham American Electronic Supply

Birmingham J.L.S. Electronics

Huntsville W&W Electronics

Montgomery Handey's Elect. Center

Opelika Southern Electronic Corp.

ALASKA

Anchorage Electronic Supply Center

Homer A-COM of Alaska

ARIZONA

Scottsdale Electronic Parts Outlet

S tet raVista B&S Electronics

Tucson Electronic City

Yuma Yuma Electronics

CALIFORNIA

Anaheim R.F. Electronics

Alascadero. Coast FJect/onics

Berkeley Al Lasher's Electronics

Carpinteria Electronic Resources

Chico Payless Wholesale

Chico The Electronics Wherehouse

Chula Vista Don Electronics

Concord Pacitic/Valley Electronics

Costa Mesa. Mar-Vac BeCl/wiics

Covina G&H/AMCO Elect Supply

Cucamonga Abletronics

Dublin. PacilicA/alley Electronics

Eureka. Redwood Electronics

Fontana Fontana Electronics

Fresno ..-■■■ Sparky Electronics

Fresno Wiiifcomm Electronics

Glendale Eagle Dectronics

Goleta Bill's Stereo

Half Moon Bay. Strawllower Elec/Radio Shack

Harbor City Buffs Electronics

Hawaiian Gardens Carson Electronics

Hollywood Pacific Radio Exchange

Inglewood Radioland/lnglewood Bed.

Lancaster Consumer lect/onics

I Dmpoc L&H Electronic Emporium

Modesto Inland Electronics

Monterey. Zacktt

Morro Bay. Coast Electronics

National City. . Willy's Electronics

North Edwards Econotronics

Oaktaod PadficA/alley FJect/onics

Oceanside Electronic Center

Orange California Electronics

Palo Alto Zack Electronics

Redding Radio Marl

Sacramento MarVac's Calil. Radio Electronics

Sacramento Zack/Sacramento

San Carlos. J&H Outlet

San Diego Radio Shack/Mira Mesa

San Francisco Zack Electronics

San Jose. Schad Electronics

San Jose. United Radio and TV

San Luis Obispo Coast Electronics

San Luis Obispo. Mid State Electronics

San Rafael. Electronics Plus

Santa Cruz Santa Cruz Electronics

Santa Maria Electronic Parts Supermart

Santa Rosa. Ardco Electronics

Santa Rosa. Pacific/Valley Electronics

Sunnyvale Sunnyvale Electronics

Torrance Signal Electronics

Torrance TorTance Electronics

♦Vallejo. . . Zackit

Ventura JANVAC Electronics

Westminster JK Electronics

Whrttier Whrltier Electronics

Willows. • - - COBCO Electronics

COLORADO

Boulder Hapco

Colorado Springs Calco Digital Equipment

Colorado Springs Centennial Electronics

Denver Rstefl's Microelectronics

Lakewcod D.H. Crump Co.

•1ST JIM-PAK DISTRIBUTOR 9/6/77

CONNECTICUT

Wallingford Tron Town USA

DEI-AWARE

Newark Computetland

Wilmington Micro Products

Wilmington Wholesale Electronics

FLORIDA

Daytona Beach C&S Electronics

Fort Walton Beach Palm Electronics

Gainesville Skipper Electronics

Hialeah Heathkit Electronic Center

Miami Dharamdas Sons

Oakland Park. Lalayctte Radio

Orlando. . . . C&S Electronics

Pensacola Pensacola Electronics

Plantation Heathkit Electronic Center

GEORGIA

Atlanta ACM. Computer Mart

Atlanta Heathkit Electronic Center

Dalton ACM. Computer Mart

Stone Mountai n Coleman's Electronics

HAWAII

Hilo Al's Electronics

Honolulu Industrial Electronics

Honolulu Integrated Circuit Supply

Kailua-Kona Mai Mai Electronics

Pearl City Heathkit Electronic Center

IDAHO

Boise Kimball Electronics

Boise RJ.M. Electronics

Pocatello. Kimball Electronics

ILLINOIS

Berwyn B.B.&W. Electronics

Carbondale Pick's Electronics

Downers Grove. Suburban Electronics

Groveland Moyer Electronics

Mount Prospect Tri-Stete Elect

Niles Joseph Electronic

Peoria Warren RadioCo.

Quincy Show Me

South Holland Union Electronic Dist

INDIANA

Angola Lakeland Electronics

Bloomington Startsiler Radio

Chesterton Chesterton Electronics

Evansville Hutch & Son

Gary Calumet Electronics

Highland Electronic Depot

Indianapolis Warren Radio Co.

South Bend P.E.I/Genesis

Terre Haute Industrial Electronics

W. Lalayelle Von's Electronics

IOWA

Ames. Electronic Supply, Inc.

Clinton R.J.S. Electronics

Davenport Union Supply Co.

Des Moines, Radio Trade Supply

Iowa City Union Supply Co.

KANSAS

Overland Park. Burstein & Assoc.

Salina EJectronics Inc.

Wichita Amateur Radio Equipment

Wichita Lloyd's Radio & Bee

Wichita RS.C Electronics

KENTUCKY

Lexington Radio Electronic Equip. Co.

Louisville Heathkit Bectronic Center

Louisville Peerless Electronic Equip. Co.

Paducah Warren Radio Co.

LOUISIANA

Baton Rouge Industrial Elect. Supply

Baton Rouge. Menard Electronics

Broussard Menard Electronics

Gretna Pelican Electronics

Houma Pelican Electronics

LOUISIANA (Continued)

lake Charles Wholesale Radio & Equip.

Metairie Pelican Electronic Supply

Shrevcporl Industrial Electronic Supply

Shreveport. Southern Electronics

MARYLAND

Aberdeen Harco Electronics

Baltimore Heathkit Electronic Center

Beltsville Mark Elcclronics

College Park Electronics Plus

Glen Burnie. Revacto of Maryland

Laurel TheComm Center

Lavale J&M Electronics

Rockville Revacto lectronics

Suitland Suburban Wholesalers

Towson Baynesville ■ectronrcs

MASSACHUSETTS

Peafiody Heathkit Electronic Center

Rttsfield- Pitlsfield Radio Equipment

Springfield. Sydlee Electronic Supply

MICHIGAN

Adrian Weocmeyer Electronics

Ann Arbor. . . Wedemeyer IBecL Supply

Bay City Kinde Distributing

DetroiL Electronic Parts Co.

Detroit : . S&S Electronics

East OetroiL Electronic Parts Co.

East DetroiL Heathkit Bectronic Center

Fenton Tri County Electronics

FlinL Shand Electronics

Grand Rapids Radio Parts Inc.

Grand Rapids T&W Electronics

Grand Rapids Warren Radio

Jackson Fulton Radio Supply

Lansing Fulton Radio Supply

Lansing Wedemeyer BecL Supply

Livonia Norwest Bectronics

Madison Heights. Warren Radio

Muskegon H&R Bectronics

Niles Niles Radio Supply

Saginaw Ryder Distributing

Saginaw Shand Bectronics

Saint Clair Shores Bell Electronics Co.

Taylor Tel Van Bectronic Supply

Traverse City Traverse CilyBecl. Supply

Westiand The Bectronic Connection

MINNESOTA

Duluth Northwest Radio ol Duluth

Hopkins Heathkit Bectronic Center

Minneapolis Acme Electronics

Proctor. Northwest Radio

MISSISSIPPI

Biloxi Hooper Electronic Supply

Jackson Ellington Electronic Supply

Pascagoula. Hooper Bectronic Supply

MISSOURI

Cape Girardeau Show Me Electronics

Columbia Show Me Electronics

Kansas City Electronic Supply Co. Inc.

Roila Show Me Electronics

Sedalia Show Me Elecuonics

Springfield Show Me Bectronics

MONTANA

Bozeman Bectronic Service & Dist

Great Falls Bectnc City Radio

NEBRASKA

Grand Island GLBectronics

Lincoln Scott Electronic Supply

Omaha Scott Electronics

NEVADA

Las Vegas Century 23

Sparks Computer House

NEW JERSEY

Fairlawn Heathkit Bectronic Center

Mantua Electronic World

NEW JERSEY (Continued)

Ocean Heathkit Electronic Center

Trenton iJiacoRadio

Vineland LaracoA/ineland

NEW MEXICO

Alamagordo Basin Bectronics

NEW YORK

AmhersL Audio Center

AmhersL Heathkit Electronic Center

Bethpage Electronic No. 24 Inc.

Buffalo Radio Equipment Corp.

Commack Spartan Electronics

Jamestown Warren Radio

Jericho Heathkit Bectronic Center

Johnson City Unicom Becl/onics

Kingston Greylock Electronics

Middleton. . . Greylock Electronics

Newburgh Action Audio Inc.

New York Taft Electronics

N. White Plains. Heathkit Bectronic Center

Poughkeepsie Greyfock Beclronics

Rensselaer Electronic Stockroom

Rochester Heathkit Bectronic Center

Troy. Trojan Hectrooic Supply

Utica Central Electronics

NORTH CAROUNA

Greensboro Heathkit Electronic Center

Winslon-Salem Trayer Inc.

NORTH DAKOTA

Fargo. Radio & TV Equipment

Fargo. S/S Bectronics

Mandan John Iverson Company

OHIO

Akron Warren Radio

Bryan. Bemie's Electric

Canton Bectronic Center Inc.

Cleveland Heathkit Bectronic Center

Lancaster Bectronic Supply Co.

Parma Superior Electronics

Toledo Heathkit Bectronic Center

Toledo. Warren Radio

Wickliflc Amateur Bectronic Supply

Youngstown Ross Radio Co.

OKLAHOMA

Bartiesville. All-State Electronics

lawton. Trice Bectronics

Oklahoma City. Trice Bectronics

Tulsa Trice Electronics

OREGON

Beaverton Norvac Electronics

Corvallis Zero Gee Electronics

Portland Portland Radio Supply

PENNSYLVANIA

Chambersburg Sunrise Bectronic Dist

Drcxel Hill Kass Bectronic DisL

Eric. Warren Radio

Frazer Heathkit Bectronic Center

McKecport. Bamo Radio

Philadelphia Heathkit iectronic Center

Philadelphia Spectrum Electronics

Phoenixville Stevens Radio Shack

Pittsburgh Soulh Hills Electronics

York Computer Center ol York

RHODE ISLAND

Cranston. Jabbour Electronics

PawtuckeL Jabbour Electronics

TENNESSEE

Bristol Shield's Bectronic Supply

Chattanooga Shield's Electronic Supply

Greenville. R&L Electronics

Knoxville Shield's Bectronic Supply

Memphis Bluff City Electronics

TENNESSEE (Continued)

Memphis Warren Radio

Nashville. Eddie Warners Inc.

Nashville Electra Dist. Co.

Smyrna Delker Bectronics

TEXAS

Brownsville George's Electronic Mart

Dallas Heathkit Electronic Center

Fort Worth Heathkit Electronic Center

Harligen George's Electronic Mart

Lubbock Trice Electronics

McAllen George's Electronic Mart

McAllen. Valley Wide Electronics

Odessa Whillock Instrument

Richardson Martin Wholesale Bectronics

Richardson Trice Bectronics

UTAH

Midvale. Heathkit Bectronic Center

Ogden Carter Supply Co.

Provo Alpine Bectronic Supply

Salt Lake City. Kimball Electronics

VERMONT

Burlington Greylock Bectronics

VIRGINIA

Annandale Arcade Electronics

Arlington Arlington ElectronicWholesalers

Blacksburg Scotly's Radio & TV

Bristol Shield's Bectronic Supply

Charlottesville Graves Electronics

Hampton Cain Electronics

Harrisonburg Electrical Wholesalers

Lynchburg Electronic Service Co.

Norfolk Avec Beclronics

Norfolk Cain Bectronics

Norfolk Priest Electronics

Richmond Avec Electronics

Roanoke Avec Beclronics

Vienna Bectronic Equipment Bank

Virginia Beach Cain Electronics

Woodbridge. EG.E.

WASHINGTON

Bellevue A B.C. Communications

Bellingham Cascade Electronics

Cheney Long's ledronics

Gig Harbor Northwest Bectronics

Otyrrtpia The Bectronic Shop

Pullman H&O Bectronics

Seattle. AB.C Communications

Seattle Amateur Radio Supply

Seattle Bectronic Supply Co.

Spokane. Bits. Bytes & Nibbles

Spokane Don's Stereo Center

Tacoma C&G Bectronics

WEST VIRGINIA

Fairmont T.P.S. Electronics

Morgantown Electro Dist. Co.

Wheeling Industronics

WISCONSIN

Kenosha Chester Bectronic Supply

FOREIGN
Canada:

British Columbia/Victoria . . . Foil Micro Systems

Guam:

Agana Marianas Sectronics

Guatemala Electronica Pan Americana

Panama Sonitel SA

Panama. TropelcoSA

Puerto Rico: . . . Halo Re y Microcomputer Store

Saudi Arabia:

Jeddah Hisham Nwailati Establishment

For Distributor Information, write or phone JIM-PAK, 1355 Shoreway Road, Belmont, CA 94002 (415) 595-5936

REVIEW: LATTICE C

ticated forms of memory allocation.

Several levels of I/O functions are
provided in the standard library. As in
memory allocation, the Lattice com-
piler offers the flexibility required to
write portable software or deal with
a specific local environment. The
highest levels of I/O are supported
through single-character functions
such as get and put. The lowest levels
are serviced with direct byte-stream
functions. Another class of functions
deals explicitly with console I/O.

A special group of functions pro-
vides an interface between the Lattice
C compiler and the MS-DOS environ-
ment. For instance, there is a function
call to the MS-DOS command pro-
cessor a function call to get an en-
vironment string, and a function call
to generate DOS functions through in-
terrupts. The interrupt function has
been updated to return the processor
status bits after the interrupt call.

Along with the compiler itself. Lat-

Listing I: A C program (TRIG)
using the trigonometric functions
available in the math library of
lattice's C compiler.

extern double sin();
extern double cos();

#define COUNT 200

mainO
{

double a,c;
int i;

a = 3.14;

for(i = 0;i<COUNT; + + 1)

{

c = cos(a);

c = sin(a);

c = cos(a);

c = sin(a);

c = cos(a);

c = sin(a);

c = cos(a);

c = sin(a);

c = cos(a);

c = sin(a);

c = cos(a);

c = sin(a);

c = cos(a);

c = sin(a);

tice provides several utility programs
to help the software developer. The
Function Extract Utility (FXU) aids you
in grouping specific functions from
several source files together in a
single source file. This is useful
because the compiler generates a
single object module for each source
file compiled. Where only a subset of
functions is required by a program,
you may extract these functions and
bind them together in a single source
file for compilation into a smaller ob-

ject module. Another utility is the Ob-
ject Module Disassembler (OMD). It
is sometimes advantageous to debug
a program at the machine-code level.
OMD provides you with a machine-
code listing of a particular object
module. Several options associated
with OMD increase its functionality.
Most notable is that a machine-
language listing can be produced with
interspersed lines of source code.

Also supplied with the compiler is
a copy of PLIB86. the object-module

liable I:

Minimum size comparison in bytes.

Release 2.14

Release 2.15

.OBJ

.EXE

.OBJ .EXE

MAIN

110

10,278

110 10,260

PRINT

170

11,702

170 11,684

I/O

342

10,610

342 10,592

PUTS

192

10,310

197 10,292

l^ble 2:

benchmark results between the two versions of lattice's C compiler.

Version 2.14 times are with the 8087 NDP. I inserted two small junctions to

keep track

of the

time, which affect the size of the benchmark, but not the

comparison

Release 2.14 small-model statistics

COMPILE RUN

.OBJ

.EXE

(seconds) (seconds)

(bytes)

(bytes)

FLOAT

33 21

1045

15,214

SIEVE

35 14

1114

22,108

FIB

35 60

776

13,952

SORT

50 250

2029

18,486

FILEIO

53 300

2106

14,908

TRIG

41 101

1215

25,644

Release 2.15 small-model statistics

COMPILE RUN

.OBJ

.EXE

(seconds) (seconds)

(bytes)

(bytes)

with NDP

without NDP

FLOAT

30 20

29C

)

1045

15,850

SIEVE

31 13

—

1223

23,884

FIB

30 60

—

776

13,934

SORT

45 224

—

2029

18,388

FILEIO

48 387

—

2106

14,810

TRIG

48 6

146

844

16,138

276 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

REVIEW: LATTICE C

librarian by Phoenix Software
Associates. With this utility, you can
create libraries from the object
modules generated through compila-
tion. This is a powerful tool that allows
you to merge libraries or extract in-
dividual modules. PLIB86 can create
libraries containing only those
modules that are actually used -by a
program, as well as provide cross-ref-
erencing. In order to determine the
minimum size requirement of the
newest implementation of the Lattice
C compiler, I wrote four short pro-
grams. The first was nothing more
than a function called main followed
by a matching pair of braces. Its ob-
ject and executable size were 1 10
bytes and 10.260 bytes, respectively.
The next function contained a single
printf statement with the phrase
HELLO WORLD. The object module
was 170 bytes and the executable file
was 1 1 ,684 bytes. This program was
linked without the math libraries. I
then produced a function with four
I/O calls: fopen, fgets, fputs, and
f close. The object module was 342
bytes in size: the executable file was
10, 592 bytes. Then 1 wrote a function
with a single puts call. The object file
was 197 bytes and the executable size
was 10,292 bytes. Ikble I lists this
data and that for the Lattice 2.14
release. The numbers for the 2.1 5 ver-
sion are just a bit smaller than those
for 2.14.

Benchmarks

A look at some benchmarks is useful
in assessing improvements of the 2 . 1 5
release. In the August 1983 issue of
BYTE, pages 88 through 94. there are
listings of five benchmark programs
intended for C compilers: the Sieve of
Eratosthenes benchmark, a float-
ing-point benchmark, a sorting bench-
mark, a Fibonacci series benchmark,
and a disk-file I/O benchmark. These
tests give us a reasonable measure of
the compilation and execution speeds
of versions 2.14 and 2.15 of the Lat-
tice compiler. Lattice claims that its
2.15 release represents substantial im-
provements in its math libraries. So
I added one more benchmark (see
listing 1). The TRIG benchmark is

similar to the FLOAT benchmark ex-
cept that it exercises the trigono-
metric library functions. 1 compiled
and executed these five benchmarks
under the 2.14 release and the 2.15
release for several memory models,
l&ble 2 lists the data from the small
memory model. The results are worth
noting. Across all memory models for

the Sieve, floating-point, sorting, and
Fibonacci benchmarks, the total time
involved in compiling and executing
is about 10 percent less for the 2.15
release than for the 2.14 release. This
is a respectable increase in speed.
The cost of this optimization is usual-
ly (but not always) a small increase in

[continued]

Atron's PC/AT Bugbusters

Hardware-assisted Software Debuggers for Bullet-proof PC /AT- based Products

A BUGBUSTER STURY

Brad Crain, a project
manager at Software
Publishing (the people
who developed both
PFS:WRITE and PFS:
FILE), relates the follow-
ing: "On Friday, March
22, 1985, 1 was about to
get on an airplane with
Jeff Tucker, who was co-
author of PFS:WRITE
with me, and fly to
IBM's Boca Raton, Flor-
ida facility For a week,
we had been unsuc-
cessfully trying to isolate
a bug in a new software
product. In a last, desper-
ation move, I set up an
early-Saturday morning
appointment with
ATRON.

"Three of us walked
through ATRON's door
at 8:00 the next morning.
Using ATRON's hard-
ware-assisted debugging
tools, we had the prob-
lem identified and fixed
by 10:30 AM."

Mr. Crain concludes:
"We'd never have found
the bug with mere
software debuggers, which have the bad habit of getting
over-written by the very bugs they're trying to find. It
doesn't surprise me that almost all the top-selling soft-
ware packages were written by ATRON customers. Now
that they've broadened their PC family of debuggers to
include a PC/AT debugging tool, those of us seriously
into 80286 development are greatly relieved."

ARE YOU TRYING TO DO SOMETHING SCAREY?

Like developing your AT-based software product in the
dark? Without professional debugging tools?

Seven of the ten top-selling software packages listed by
the THE WALL STREET JOURNAL* were produced by
ATRON customers. The PC PROBE™ bugbuster
($1595) accounts for much of this success. Now that the
PC/AT is thenew standard for advanced commercial and
scientific development, ATRON is proud to announce the
AT PROBE™ bugbuster ($2495). It has even more
debugging capabilities than the PC Probe.
•wsj. j

20665 Fourth Street • Saratoga, CA 95070

24. 1983. lE(Dfli«gSrtxJ figures. C 1985 by ATKON. PC P««8E~ and ATPROBE~ ATRON. SIDEKICK" BocUnd IBM Cnqi i

HOW BUGBUSTERS KEEP YOU FROM GETTING SLIMED

The AT PROBE Is a circuit board that
plugs into your PC/AT. It has an
umbilical which plugs into
your 80287 socket and
monitors all processor
activity.

Since AT PROBE can
trace program execution in
real time, and display the
last 2048 memory cycles,
you can easily answer the
questions: "How did I get
here?" and "What are the
interrupts doing?"

It can solve spooky
debugging problems.
Like finding where
your program over-
writes memory or I/O -
impossible with soft-
ware debuggers.

You can even do
source-level debugging
in your favorite lan-
guage, like C, Pascal or
assembler. And after
your application is
debugged, the AT
PROBE's perfor-
mance-measurement
software can isolate
your application's
bottlenecks.

Finally, the AT PROBE has its own 1-MByte of mem-
ory. Hidden and write-protected. How else could you
develop that really large program, where the symbol
table would otherwise demand most of your PC/AT
memory.

BORLAND'S PHILIPPE KAHN: "THERE WOULDN'T BE A
SIDEKICK™ WITHOUT ATRON'S DEBUGGERS."

So why waste more time reading though your program
listing for the ten thousandth time, trying to find why your
program starts howling with every full moon. Be like
BORLAND, get your Atron bugbuster today and bust
bugs tomorrow.

408/741-5900

byTRBA.

mn:

Inquiry 29

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 277

REVIEW: LATTICE C

Generally, release 2.15
represents an improved
Lattice C compiler.

the size of the executable file (about
I percent). There are two noteworthy
exceptions to this: the FILEIO bench-
mark and the TRIG benchmark. The
FILEIO test sequentially writes a
65.000-byte file out to disk. Next, it
randomly generates long integers that
are used as a disk address. It reads,
and then it writes a random-length
string of bytes to that random ad-
dress. Again, the compile time was
about 10 percent less for the 2.1 5 ver-
sion. The surprise came in the actual
running of the benchmark. The 2.14
release averaged approximately 300
seconds, while 2.1 5 averaged close to
400 seconds. On the other hand, the
TRIG benchmark showed a
phenomenal increase in speed be-
tween 2.14 and 2.15. Although 2.15
took longer to compile, you can see
in table 2 that it reduced the execu-
tion time of 1 01 seconds down to 6
seconds. Also, the 2 . 1 5 version of the
executable file is significantly smaller

than the 2.14 version. This com-
parison confirms that Lattice has in-
deed improved its math libraries.

I investigated the use of the 8087
math chip. Both the 2.14 andthe 2.15
documentation indicate that the com-
piler will sense the presence of the
8087 and adjust the code according-
ly. The 2.15 release has enhanced the
way the compiler uses the chip. The
presence of the 8087 is only detected
once at start-up time. A public byte
can be turned off in the main program
to suppress this detection if you don't
want to use the chip. The standard
math module contains code for soft-
ware emulation of floating-point
operations, as well as code that makes
use of the 8087. There is a provision
with the 2.1 5 release to include only
one or the other through the use of
one of two object modules.
NONDP.OBJ should be linked with
those programs that are intended to
execute only on systems without the
8087 chip. NDP.OBJ should be linked
with programs that are intended to
execute only on systems with the
8087 chip. The floating-point bench-
mark compiled with the ,2.14 release
executed in 21 seconds. The execu-
tion time of the 2.15 version of the
floating-point benchmark was 20 sec-

Update

As this issue went to press. Lattice
announced its version 3 C com-
piler for MS-DOS computers. While we
saw a prerelease copy of version 3.0.
we cannot verify that all of the claimed
enhancements have been imple-
mented or are without flaws. Some of
the reported changes are:

• The compiler can generate code for
either the 801 86 or 80286. A compile-
time option determines the instruction
set generated. (The default is 8086/
8088 code.)

• A compile-time option allows you to
generate in-line floating-point instruc-
tions for either the 8087 or 80287
numeric data processor, resulting in
smaller executable programs.

• Support for MS-DOS version 1 has
been removed. Lattice will continue to
support the version 2 C compiler for
developers using MS-DOS version 1.
Removing this support reduces the size
of the libraries.

• The library files have been updated.
This change affects the user in two
ways. First, programs using file I/O func-
tions may have to be modified to call
the library routines properly. Second,
the libraries are now shipped in a
space-efficient format. This new format
can be handled by IBM and Microsoft
linkers later than version 2.1. However,
a conversion package called OML can
be used to repack the libraries into the
old format if required. OML is included
with the version 3 C compiler.

onds. I linked up two more versions
of the 2.1 5 floating-point benchmark,
one with NONDP.OBJ and one with
NDPOBJ. The NDPOBI version ran in
20 seconds with an executable size of
14.5 54 bytes. Since the original
floating-point executable was 15.850
bytes in size, you can clearly see that
judicious use of N DP.OBJ will reduce
the size of a program. The
NONDP.OBJ version of the floating
point benchmark executed in 290 sec-
onds. [Editor's note: Using the
NONDP.OBJ file generated an executable file
that was 22.874 bytes in size.\

The Lattice manual is an outstand-
ing piece of work in content, organiza-
tion, and appearance. It begins with
a brief section on getting started,
describes the minimum machine con-
figuration needed to run the compiler
(128K bytes and two floppy-disk
drives), and explains how to set up a
hard-disk or floppy-disk system. (A
batch file that comes with the pack-
age sets up the hard-disk system auto-
matically.)

Three of the manual's five sections
take a generic approach: that is, they
describe aspects of the compiler that
are not hardware-dependent or imple-
mentation-specific. The first section
introduces the product. The second
discusses the differences between the
Lattice compiler and C as described
by Kemighan and Ritchie. The third
section covers the portable library
functions furnished with the Lattice
package. The fourth and fifth sections
discuss the run-time implementation
and the operating-system interface,
respectively. Appendixes cover error
messages, files, and functions. Follow-
ing a function index is an index of the
entire manual.

Generally, the 2.15 release repre-
sents an improved Lattice C compiler.
Most 2.15 benchmarks I ran compiled
and executed faster than their 2.14
counterparts. The math libraries have
been improved. Any increase in the
size of the 2.15 executable files is
almost negligible. The addition of a
separate function index to the manual
is a fantastic idea. Lattice's customer
support seems reasonable. I am im-
pressed with the product. ■

278 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Attention Microsoft Word Users

T T T Microsoft T

Word

mining

WORD

If you are a Microsoft Word user, using a dot matrix or
laser printer, you now can print your letters, reports and
presentation materials in near typeset quality with Fancy Word,

You simply use Microsoft Word like you always have,
including the paragraph and character format commands. The
difference is superior quality and font variety! In fact, the copy
and sample page in this ad were printed on an Epson FX80
printer using Fancy Word

Standard FancyWord font styles include Roman, Sans Serif,
Bold, Italic, JvnifU, ©IMErujltsrf and many more in 10 to 24
point sizes. SoftCraft offers hundreds of optional fonts in
sizes from 6 to 72 points. There is also an option that enables
you to create your own special characters and logos.

Impact Your Laser

Combine the high quality of the HP LaserJet printer with
the font styles and sizes of FancyWord for the ultimate in
visual impact.

tective

FancyWord is available from your local dealer or direct
from SoftCraft for only $140.

You get near typeset quality at a small fraction of the time
and cost of using art or typesetting services.

FancyWord runs on PCDOS and MSDOS systems with
Epson, Toshiba, LaserJet and compatible printers.

Call TOLL FREE today to order FancyWord. We'll also be
happy to answer any questions or send you additional
information including actual samples and independent reviews.

CALL TODAY 1-800-351-0500

MasterCharge and Visa accepted

SoftCrdlt, Inc.

222 Stale Street, Madison, WI 53703 (608) 257-3300

Inquiry 294

For Fancy letters, take our "WORD" for it.

SoftCraft, Inc.

US

.fom^u WORD, from the developers of the highly-acclaimed SuiuujJZid' personal typesetting
system, brings Microsoft Word users the amazing print quality and variety of yZnajjfciit
and the ease-of-use of Word. Use the Word "Format Character" command to selectbold
or italic for emphasis, 0916 (English for formnlily, a clean Sans Serif font or mifdfara.
/uwuL'THlbrt LoL Print with superscript^ subsc . or fine print or use a large, bold font to
produce headlines with impact, such as:

Printed on an Epson Printer

All of Word's powerful
formatting and on-screen
editing features can be
used with ffiw^ word, in-
cluding justification, multi-
ple columns and footnotes.
This entire page was pre-
pared with Word and
printed with .9u?you word.

In addition to the fonts
that come with .Tuju^wORD
hundreds of fonts in sizes
from 6 points to 72 points
arc available, at a nominal
charge, from SoftCraft's
font library. You can also
purchase the jfo^TW'
font editing utilities to cre-
ate your own characters or
logos, up to 1 inch by 1
inch in size.

The special math and sym-
bol fonts available from
the font library can be
used in many special app-
lications, such as printing
equations:

77 («) = 2

k=2

Jt-1

I

Inthe traditionof

SamuelMorse's telegraph,
weVe created an easier
raytodashoff messages
onyourcomputer.

t

> ,

1

In 1844 Morse tapped out a series
of dots and dashes on his new tele-
graph, and the message "What hath
God wrought?" traveled instantly
between Washington D.C and Balti-
more. Telecommunications was born.
Today, weVe teamed our new 1200 bps
modem with Microsoft's® Access soft-
ware, and telecommunications has
come of age.

Making information easier to send
and receive was the reason we designed
the Kyocera modem for the IBM PC,
AT, XT* and compatibles. That's why
we gave it 8K of intelligence for a vari-
ety of time and money-saving func-
tions. Like unattended operation, busy
and dial tone detection, 11 result codes,
and help menus.

Then we teamed it with todays most advanced communications software. Access by Microsoft.
Access is the communications program with X.PC, the amazing protocol that allows you to open 15 live connec-
tions over a single line while actually viewing 8 of them simultaneously through
"windows" on your screen. At the same time, it automatically checks for data
errors during transmission. In addition, Access has built-in interfaces for the infor-
mation services you need, like CompuServe® and Dow Jones News/Retrieval! And
the Access Learn command turns long command sequences into one-stroke func-
tions that quickly get you on your way to solving problems and doing business.
So get the communications package that makes it easier to get the business
information you need. The bundle includes modem, Access software, all accessories,

The 1844Morse telegraph. With it,
Samuel Morse revolutionized telecommunications.

Microsoft Access withX.PC
allowsmultiple liveconnections.

and even the RS-232C cable (for IBM PC, XT and compatibles).
It's a system even Sam Morse would be proud of.

rf[l<yCEERa Modems

"^B A tradition of innovation.
Fa your nearest Kyocera dealer, call toll-free (800) 235-1222 a (408) 257-8000.

©1985 Kyocera lntemational.Inc, VallcoPark, 1005O N. Wolfe Rd.,Suite 266, Cupertino, CA 95014. Microsoft is a registeredtrademark of Microsoft Corporation.

CompuServe is a registered trademark ofCompuScrvc, Inc. Dow Jones Ncus/Rorieva] is a registeredtrademark ofDow Jones, Inc. IBM PC, AT, XT aic registered trademarks of IBM Corporation.

Inquiry 186 for End-Users. Inquiry 187 for DEALERS ONLY.

ij K!dDCERai200S

SOFTWARE REVIEW

Turbo Pascal 3.0

An update
on Borland's

by Mark Bridger

It seems that hardly a month goes by
without a new piece of software from
Borland International. Tlirbo Pascal has
, appeared in its third version, so perhaps it

COmpil6r is time to take another look. | Editor's note: Tom
VJadlow reviewed version 1.0 in our ]uly 1984 issue,
page 267.1

Briefly, here are some of the unique fea-
tures of TUrbo. It is small (version 3 is just
under 40K bytes). It contains not just a com-
piler but a full-featured full-screen editor
that is integrated with the compiler so that
compilation errors land you directly in edi-
tor mode with the cursor at (or near) the
offending line. Other Pascal compilers, even
those not containing editors, are from 5 to
10 times larger; in fact, Tlirbo is about the
size of a small text editor. This is significant
because TUrbo can be tucked away in a cor-
ner of a disk or RAM drive.

It is fast (see the benchmark graphs in the
"At a Glance" section). Tlirbo compiles eas-
ily five times faster than other Pascals. One
of the reasons for this is that it has no link
step (more on this later). It produces small,
fast code, Tlirbo-compiled executable pro-
grams are as fast or faster than those com-
piled on any other Pascal compiler (again,
see the benchmarks). Furthermore, these
programs themselves are smaller than
those produced by other compilers by a
factor of one-half to one-third.

Version 3 .0 offers several major improve-
ments and several minor ones. The three
most noticeable changes have to do with
speed. Unlikely as it may seem, TUrbo 3
compiles programs approximately twice as
fast as version 2. This may appear insignifi-
cant for small programs, where the differ-
ence between 5 seconds and 9 seconds
hardly matters. But when you are debug-
ging a 3000-line program, the difference
between I minute and 2 minutes can real-
ly add up.

The second speed difference is in the
floating-point routines— those routines that
deal with real-number operations. Here
Borland has obviously spent a fair amount

Mark Bridger is president of

Bridge Software and an associate

professor of mathematics at

Northeastern University in Boston.

He can be reached at 31 Champa

St.. Newton, MA 02164.

of effort to write good libraries. Version 3.0
executes real-number manipulations ap-
proximately twice as fast as version 2.0.
There is still room for improvement, how-
ever. (See the CALC and TRANS bench-
marks.)

The third speed improvement is in TUrbo's
editor. Previously the editor wrote to the
screen by using calls to PC-DOS service rou-
tines. These routines are notoriously slow
and are usually used only when absolute
compatibility with future hardware changes
is essential. The 3.0 editor writes by pok-
ing character codes directly into screen
memory. This tremendously improves the
speed of the editor. Borland has also
managed to eliminate the static (caused by
accessing memory while the screen is be-
ing written) that usually accompanies this
sort of screen writing.

Another new feature unrelated to speed
is the addition of nice graphics procedures.
Even in version 2.0 Borland had broken with
Pascal's puritanical avoidance of graphics
support; color choice and routines for point
and line drawing were included (for IBM PC-
compatibles only). Borland has added the
following procedures in TUrbo 3.0 (for IBM
PC-compatibles only, of course).

The Circle and Arc routines draw circles
or pieces of circles with a given radius,
center, and color. The Fill routine comes in
several types, enabling you to fill the entire
screen, an irregular region bounded by a
closed unbroken curve, or a rectangle. This
last fill can be done with a specified "tex-
ture, " or pattern of dots, though only in one
color (as opposed to the more versatile
TILE command in IBM BASIC).

The GetPic and PutPic commands are the
same as GET and PUT in IBM BASIC; they
enable you to move or copy the contents
of a rectangular patch on the graphics
screen.

A series of turtle graphics procedures
have been added that emulate the com-
mands in the Logo programming language.

[continued)

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 281

AT A GLANCE

Name

Turbo Pascal 3.0

Type

Pascal compiler and
development environment for
MS-DOS and CP/M-80

Company

Borland International
4807 Scotts Valley Dr:
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
(408) 438-8400

Size

Compiler and editor take
approximately 39.6K bytes in
MS-DOS

Features

Built-in screen editor and fast
compilation to memory or
disk; many language
additions and special routines
for performing systems
programming

Documentation

Soft-bound 376-page manual

Price

$ 69.95

$109.90 with 8087 support
$109.90 with BCD support
$124.95 with both 8087 and
BCD support

COMPILE TIME (SEC)
25

20

13

14

1111 5.7

1

E'

N/A

EXECUTE TIME (SEC)
250

150

100

1 2 3

TURBO PASCAL PUZZLE.COM FILE
(VERSIONS 1, 2 8. 3 )

1 2 3

IBM PASCAL PUZZLE.EXE FILE

A comparison of Turbo Pascal and IBM Pascal
version 1 running under PC-DOS on the IBM
Personal Computer. To visualize the improve-
ments made in the three versions of Turbo
Pascal, we ran the Puzzle program in Tom
Wadlow's review of Turbo version 1 (July 1984
BYTE, page 267). The size of the compiled
code increased slightly with each version.
There is little difference between versions 1 and
2 in terms of size, compile time, and running
time. With version 3, however, there is a sub-
stantial improvement in compile time and a
slight improvement in running time. These im-
provements become more pronounced as the

size of the file increases. All three versions of
Turbo Pascal outperformed IBM Pascal in this
test as far as code size and running time. As
mentioned in the earlier Turbo review, a com-
pile time for IBM Pascal version 1 is not shown
because its compilation method involves
several steps; it would be meaningless to com-
pare it with the one-step compilation of Turbo
Pascal. [Editor's note: In the aforementioned
review, the Puzzle program on page 274 has
one error. The line pieceMax[1]
1 +d* + d*d*3 should read pieceMax[1] : =
1+d*0 + d*d*3.l

You can move the turtle (tiny pointer)
around with simple commands such
as Forwd (some distance), TurnLeft
(angle) or TurnRight (angle), and Pen-
down (leave a trail), among others.
These, of course, must be used in a
program, not typed directly from the

keyboard as in Logo. To some extent
they are a reasonable alternative to
the "string drawing" commands in
IBM BASIC.

In addition to speed and graphics
enhancements, TUrbo now provides
I/O (input/output) redirection and the

path and tree-structured directories of
DOS 2.0. It also contains a procedure
enabling TUrbo programs to access
parameters from the DOS command
line.

Miscellaneous useful additions in-
clude the ability to put several exter-

282 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

REVIEW: TURBO

nal (machine-language) procedures in
a single file and the ability to run pro-
grams calling overlay procedures
while in "memory mode." (In 'lUrbo. a
program can be compiled to a stand-
alone executable file or be compiled
and run in memory. In the latter case,
when program execution stops, you
are returned to your program in the
Tlirbo editor.)

Finally. TUrbo's annoying habit of
clearing the screen when a program
is run has been eliminated; the pro-
cedure ClrScr can be called to do this
chore at the programmer's discretion.

Benchmarks

To test some of Borland's speed
claims I ran some straightforward
benchmark programs (see table 1).
CALC (listing I) and SIEVE (the source
code is on page 274 of the July 1984
BYTE) are standard BYTE speed-
testers. The former tests real-number
multiplication and division, while the
latter tests data manipulation in mem-
ory. I also added the program FIjOAT
(listing 2). which tests TUrbo's library
of transcendental functions, in par-
ticular sine. log. and exponential.

As you can see from FLOAT and
CALC. the new version of TUrbo is be-
tween two and three times faster than
the old one when it comes to real-
number manipulations. There is little
difference between the two when it
comes to the simple arithmetic of the
SIEVE test. Note also that while us-
ing the 8087 chip speeds up real-
number crunching immensely, there
is little discernible difference between
the old and new r IUrbos when this
chip is used. This shows that Borland
has rewritten the r IUrbo libraries that
do floating-point calculations but has
done little or nothing to improve TUr-
bo's 8087 interface. (See the 'Acid
Tfest" text box on page 285 for a com-
parison with Microsoft Pascal.)

The program TRANS (listing 3) tests
character-by-character copying of
ASCII files, while BTRANS (listing 4)
tests the speed of arbitrary file copy-
ing by block transfers. An ASCII file
is a disk file composed of bytes, each
representing a character; word pro-

[continued)

'T^ble I: The CALC program shows how long it takes to do 10.000 multipli-
cation and 10.000 division operations using single-precision numbers. The
FLOAT program tests TUrbo's library of transcendental functions. The SIEVE
program shows how long it takes to run one iteration of the Sieve of Eratosthenes
prime-number benchmark. The TRANS program shows how long it takes to copy
a \0.000-character file one character at a time, while BTRANS shows how long
it takes to copy this file 128 bytes at a time. The L1NETEST routine was run
first with TUrbo's standard Draw routine and then with Gary Derman's in-line
drawing routine to illustrate how much Turbo's line-drawing routine can be
improved. An asterisk indicates that the test was irrelevant. Times are in seconds.

CALC

FLOAT

SIEVE

TRANS

(RAM to RAM)

TRANS

(disk to disk)

BTRANS

(RAM to RAM)

BTRANS

(disk to disk)

LINETEST

(Turbo's Draw)

LINETEST

(Derman's LINE)

Turbo 2.0
82.5

Turbo 2.0

(with 8087)

6.5

Turbo 3.0
32.0

Turbo 3.0

(with 8087)

6.5

175.0

3.0

65.0

3.0

14.0

*

13.0

*

67.0

*

81.0

*

94.0

1.2

17.0

17.0

1.2

117.0

1.2

17.0

17.0

1.2

Listing I : The CALC program
coded in TUrbo Pascal. This
benchmark is run to test real-
number multiplication and division.

program CALC;
var A.B.C: real;
N, 1: integer;
begin

N: = 5000;
A:= 2.71828;
B:= 3.14159;
C:= 1;

For 1: = 1 to N do
begin

C:= C * A;
C:= C * B;
C:= C/A;
C:= C/B
end;
write(chr(7));

writeln('Error = ', C-1)
end.

Listing 2: The FLOAT benchmark
tests Turbo's library of
transcendental functions.

program

FLOAT;

var I: Integer;

x,y: real;

begin

x:= 1

;

for l: =

= 1 to 1000 do

beg

n

y

= sin(x);

y

= ln(x);

y

= exp(x);

y

= sqrt(x);

y

= arctan(x);

X

= x + 0.01

end

end.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 283

REVIEW: TURBO

cessors. for example, create ASCII
files. A file of integers is composed of
pairs of bytes, each pair representing
an integer. On the disk, however, all
files are. physically, just strings of bits.
For convenience and for its internal
recordkeeping. DOS divides these
data bits into 8-bit bytes and. general-
ly, collects groups of 128 bytes into
a block called a record. It is up to the
program reading the disk file to deter-
mine how to clump the bytes it reads.
If a file is declared to be a file of in-
teger, then Pascal reads it from the
disk in groups of 2 bytes; files of reals
are read in groups of 6 (or 8) bytes,
etc. However, if you just want to copy
a file from one place to another (disk
to disk or disk to memory, for exam-
ple), then it is faster to take larger
gulps. 'Ilirbo enables you to do this
using its block read/write procedures.
The default-size gulp is a block or
record of 128 bytes.

TRANS and BTRANS were tested on
a file of 10.000 characters (bytes). As
you can see from the benchmark,
copying by blocks is much faster, but
for each type of copying there is lit-
tle difference between the old and
new 'Ilirbos.

lb test TUrbo's graphics I zeroed in
on the line-drawing procedures, which
are the heart of any graphics system.
The speed at which a line is drawn is

Listing 3: The TRANS program
tests the speed of copying a file one
character at a time.

program TRANS;
var
F,G: file of byte;
ch: byte;
begin
assign(F t 'infile.txt');
assign(G, butfile.txt' );
reset(F); rewrite(G);
while not(EOF(F)) do
begin

read(F, ch);
write(G, ch)
end;
close(F); close(G);
write(chr(7)); {Beep}
end.

determined, for technical reasons, not
just by its length but. to varying
degrees, by the positions of its end-
points and its slope. The program
L1NETEST (listing 5) draws lines of
varying position and slope and gives
Turbo's Draw procedure a good work-
out. There was no difference in time
between 'Ilirbos 2.0 and 3.0. In gen-
eral. TUrbo's line-drawing routines are
fairly slow. One reason for this is that
they must check to see if some "win-
dow" has been established outside of
which the line must be "clipped" off.
To show what can be done. I substi-
tuted an in-line machine-code line-
drawing algorithm by Gary Derman
for the TUrbo Draw procedure. (Mr.
Derman can be contacted at 1 5 Mc-
Adams Rd.. Framingham, MA 01701.)
Note the dramatic improvement. I
suspect the 'Ilirbo Fill procedures
would also benefit from faster line-
drawing algorithms. Finally. I put
r Ilirbo to the test of compiling a long
commercial product. Results are in
the text box.

Turbo's Limitations

One reason TUrbo compiles so quickly
is that it produces .COM executable
files. Without going into technicalities,
suffice it to say this entails some limi-
tations: No program can have com-
piled code longer than 64K bytes, and

Listing 4: The BTRANS program
tests the speed of copying a file in
\28~byte chunks.

program BTRANS;
var

F,G: file; {untyped files for

blockmoves}
buffer: array[1..128] of byte;
I: integer;
begin
assign(F, 'infiie.dat');
assign(G, 'outfile.dat');
reset(F); rewrite(G);
while not(EOF(F)) do
begin
blockread(F, buffer, 1,1);
blockwrite(G, buffer, 1 J)
end;
close(F); close(G);
write(chr(7)); {Beep}
end.

it is not possible to compile parts of
a program separately and link them
later.

The first restriction is significant only
for long programs. The SURF program
described in the "Acid Tfest" is about
3000 lines and compiles to approxi-
mately 50K bytes. Since about 12K
bytes of this is the unavoidable over-
head of 'Ilirbo's run-time libraries, it is
clear that programs of at least 4000
lines are feasible.

Longer programs can be created
using "overlays." An overlay is a sep-
arately compiled procedure that re-
sides on the disk. When the main pro-
gram needs it, the overlay is read from
memory and placed in a space left
open by the main program. The main
program can actually pass values to
it. When the overlay is no longer
needed, the main program reasserts
itself, but the space in memory is left
open for calling another overlay. Most
word processors, integrated spread-
sheets, and database managers use
overlays— that's why you have to keep
the program disk in the drive when
you are using them.

The second limitation is often cited,
yet it is not clear to me how valid it
is. If a 3000-line program can be com-
piled in about 80 seconds, the asser-
tion that modular compiling can save
time seems to lose some of its force.

Listing 5: The LINETEST
program tests the speed of TUrbds
line-drawing routine.

program LINETEST;
var

i, j : integer;
begin
graphmode;
Palette(1);

for i : = to 1 5 do

for j : = to 9 do

draw(20*i, 20*j, 319-20H,

199-20*j, i+j")

write(chr(7)) {Beep}

end.

284 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

REVIEW: TURBO

You can argue that in a team program-
ming effort it is not feasible to put all
parts of a long program together just
to test an individual component; yet.
that doesn't quite hold water. It is cer-
tainly a trivial matter to test whether
a bunch of procedures are syntactical-
ly correct using TUrbo. You create a
dummy main program body to call
the procedures and run the whole
thing through the compiler. In fact, if
you were truly programming in a top-
down fashion, everyone on the pro-
ject would have a copy of the main
body of the program, since it would
be virtually a simple list of the pro-
cedures. Furthermore, if more than a
syntactical test of procedures is
necessary, separate compilation is
decidedly inferior to creating a sim-
ple main program, including assign-
ment of variable values, which would
"drive" the procedures in question.

Certainly it's possible to imagine a
situation in which the size limitation
of Tlirbo would cause a problem. A
10,000-line program in which overlay-
ing is impossible is just not going to
work. Also, an application that de-
mands the fastest possible 8087 real-
number crunching will likely require
Microsoft Pascal.

Finally, there's the question of the
so-called Pascal standard. I submit
that with a quarter of a million copies
sold, Tlirbo is as close to becoming
a de facto standard as any other "stan-
dard." If Borland could get TUrbo
working on 68000-based machines—
especially the Macintosh— who could
dispute TUrbo's claim of being the mi-
crocomputer Pascal standard?

Some Negatives

My copy of Tlirbo 3.0 had a serious
bug in the BlockRead procedure. If
the source file had more than n but
fewer than h+ I 128-byte blocks, only
n of them would get read unless the
so-called "optional" fourth parameter
were added (even if only as a dummy).
Furthermore, the FileSize function
would incorrectly determine the num-
ber of blocks in a file of this type. This
bug is not in version 2.0 of Tlirbo. Bor-
land assured me that it was aware of
this problem and that it would be

An Acid Test

I have developed several scientific
programs, one of which. SURF,
draws three-dimensional surfaces
defined by mathematical equations
(see the March 1985 BYTE, page 240).
This program is approximately 3000
lines long and consists of three
modules: the main program, a func-
tion; the parser, which reads and inter-
prets functions entered from the key-
board; and a video interface that con-
tains, among other things, some fast
line-drawing algorithms combined with
hidden-line checking.

Since the SURF program was origi-
nally written for Microsoft Pascal. I was
able to make comparisons between Mi-
crosoft and TUrbo compilation and exe-
cution times. In the Microsoft Pascal
version, the main program, the parser,
and the video interface were all com-
piled separately as units, then linked.
All compilation was done in RAM on
an IBM Personal Computer, so as not
to confuse the issue with disk-drive
start-up times, etc. Except for the 8087
times (run on a PC), the executable
times are all for the PCjr— twice as slow
as the PC I used the PCjr for two rea-
sons. First, it shows dramatically how
significant differences in execution
time can be. Second. I had trouble find-
ing a machine that didn't have an 8087
chip installed (I'm surrounded by scien-
tists) and I didn't want to open my ma-
chine to turn my chip off.

The Scale and Graph columns refer
to the times required to scale and
graph the function z = sm(x*y). In the
first case, 22 5 points are computed,
each involving the calculation of sm(x*y)
and. among other things, the product

of a 3 by 3 matrix with a 3 -vector. In
the second. 1800 points are calculated
in a similar fashion, but the points are
connected on the screen, with hidden-
line checking.

Compiling SURF.PAS (2922 lines)
(times in minutes)

Tlirbo Pascal 2.0 1.4

Tlirbo Pascal 3.00 0.8

Microsoft Pascal 7.0

Running SURF on the PCjr

(times in minutes)

Scale
Tlirbo Pascal 2.0 1 .0

Tlirbo Pascal 3.0 0.4

Microsoft Pascal 0.8

Graph
7.5
3.0
5.2

(Microsoft Pascal compiled with SFloat-
Calls + . the fastest-running non-8087
option.)

Running SURF with the 8087 (IBM PC)
(times in seconds)

Scale Graph
Tlirbo Pascal 2.0 3.4 25.0

Tlirbo Pascal 3.0 3.4 24.0

Microsoft Pascal 2.3 12.8

Note that with version 3.0. Tlirbo is now
faster than Microsoft Pascal for non-
8087 number crunching. On the other
hand, the Microsoft 8087 support still
produces code running twice as fast as
TUrbo's. The executable code for the
Microsoft version is in excess of 77K
bytes, while the TUrbo code is less than
5 5K bytes. This could be a significant
factor in running the program in some
environments.

fixed within a few weeks. I'm sure it
willbebythetime you read this. I just
wonder, however, if there shouldn't be
some automatic notification of soft-
ware owners about defects in a prod-
uct. If I didn't happen to be using the
BlockRead procedure when I did. and
didn't happen to notice its particular
quirk, I might have later included it.
unknowingly, in a program. This is
especially important in tools such as

compilers where a defect can taint
hundreds of products. It would be
nice if Borland took the lead in the in-
dustry in offering such an automatic
user-protection policy— sort of the
software equivalent of an automotive
safety recall.

Another "hidden" problem is de-
creased compatibility. At least one
hardware configuration that used to

[continued)

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 285

A very special computer &
electronics guide that shows
you what the exciting world of
kitbuilding can do for you.

Challenge. Knowledge. Achievement. Enjoy-
ment. All of these things are yours when you build
a Heathkit high-quality product. Our colorful, in-
formative catalog reflects the years of experience
and technological expertise that make these
thingshappen for you.

Hero 8 1 Educational
Robot and Courseware

IBM-PC Compatible
^Expandable Computers

In our catalog you'll find over 450
interesting and useful items - from
computer hardware and software to
robots and test instruments, and from
home security systems to color tv's
and amateur radio equipment.

But what makes Heath Company
unique is thatwe offer you the confi-

\NOW for your FREE Heathkit Catalog

dence and pridethatyou can only get
by building a state-of-the-art product
yourself. And you're backed by our
promise, "We won't let you fail."

The Heathkit Catalog is a simple -
and FREE - first step toward this ex-
cellent opportunity.

JQS! I want to see what kitbuilding can do for me.
Please send me the latest Heathkit Catalog Free.

Send to: Heath Company, Dept. 334-382
Benton Harbor, Michigan 49022

"l

Name_

Address .

Zip_

Company

1 1 A subsidiary of Zenith Electronics Corporation
I

286 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

CL-787

J

Inquiry 153

REVIEW: TURBO

Borland acknowledged
Turbo 3.0 is "somewhat
more IBM-specific'.'

run programs compiled by 'IUrbo 2.0
will no longer run the same programs
compiled using 3.0. Borland acknowl-
edged that version 3.0 is. indeed,
"somewhat more IBM-specific." I sus-
pect the problem lies in 'IUrbo's new
screen writing. Nevertheless, this is
something you should watch out for
if you have an IBM PC-compatible.
Here are some other items that de-
serve attention. The line-drawing al-
gorithm should be speeded up, and
there should be some provision for
using XOR as an aid in animation. The
8087 support should be rewritten so
as to bring it up to Microsoft Pascal
speed. This might be important for
scientific applications. The editor
should have better facilities for chang-
ing the drive being written to or the
name of a given file. Currently, if you
want to save the file you are working
on under another name or on another
drive, you have to mark the file with
~ KB and ~ KK editor commands and
then use the BlockWrite function,
* K W. to write the file out to the drive
and filename you then specify. It
would also be lovely to be able to
split the screen while in the editor and
work between two files simultaneous-
ly. Finally, how about 4-byte integers
so we will not be limited to arrays of
32K bytes?

Conclusions

It is hard to avoid recommending 'IUr-
bo to anyone who wants to program
in Pascal. If you have version 2.0 and
want to compile or crunch reals twice
as fast, or do fancier graphics, then
the price of version 3.0 is well worth
it. especially since Borland offers a
trade-in discount. ■

Editor's note: The listings in this article, along
with those mentioned in the ]uly 1984 review
of Turbo version I . can be downloaded from
BYTEnet Listings at (617) 861-9764.

REVIEW FEEDBACK

"Dead on Arrival"

Reading the letter by Farrell Chown
(November 1985, page 367) on the printer
difficulties he ran into and the reviews he
read made me resolve to tell what hap-
pened to me. I'll bet many purchasers who
depend on what they read in BYTE, PC
Week and other magazines could match
this sad tale.

I bought a C.Itoh 1550 SCEP because I
read the reviews of printers, and the
literature, and the tables of comparison
data. In short. I researched it. In buying
it from a local merchant, paying a reason-
able premium over mail-order discount,
I thought— if anything goes wrong. . .

The machine arrived DOA: it never
peeped. I called "technical support." They
implied I must have used a wrong cable;
i.e.. it was my fault. Anyway, the local mer-
chant agreed I was due a replacement.
OK. After several weeks, it arrived.

The second one emulated the IBM
graphics as advertised, and since I was
behind in my work, I began using it with-
out trying all the options. Later, I tried to
use the color option and it did not seem
to work. I called technical support and
learned only the black-and-white mode
emulates, not the color! Huh? The adver-
tising material clearly stated that this
printer was a color printer and that it con-
nected directly to the IBM PC. I paid about
$250 extra for this option. "You should call
our customer-handling group," I was told.

I called the Customer Satisfaction Office. .
A spokesperson said he'd look into it and
get back to me. Unfortunately he did not
get back to me. and on subsequent calls.
I learned that he was out of the office. He
never called.

I did a self-test in color to see if that
would work; no emulation or computer in-
put is needed. Negative. I dialed the tech
support group. "Well, no doubt there is
a physical problem, lake it to the mer-
chant." The merchant's technician said:
"There's a little motor that moves the
tricolor ribbon up and down and it's out—
the microswitch is OK. We will order a
motor and fix it under the warranty." Later
he called me. "You have to take it to an
approved repair station." This entailed a
two-hour round trip (twice) at my expense.

What is the bottom line? I put my money

down in July. It is now late November and
I still do not have an operational printer.
I am thoroughly disenchanted with C.Itoh
and with the distribution and warranty
repair system. Meantime all I can do is
spread the word— write to BYTE, talk it up
at my local PC club, and I'm sure the word
will spread.

Milton H. Feldman
Corvallis, OR

Five C Compilers
for the Mac

I have been waiting for a review of C com-
pilers for the Macintosh and found Tim
Field's "Five C Compilers for the Macin-
tosh" (November 1985, page 275) very in-
formative. As a professional programmer
(but new to the Macintosh), I have some
disagreements with him.

The Aztec now comes in one fat binder
instead of two. The 600-page documen-
tation is good, but lack of an index is un-
forgivable. Aztec gives a tutorial section,
but it is missing some key things. If you
follow the tutorial, the printer won't work.
Aztec forgot to tell you that the Image-
writer file from a system disk must be
loaded onto the disk first and bin/prsetup
on disk two has to be run to set up the
printer. Furthermore, disk one is too full
just to add these files, so you have to
decide what you want to copy to a new
disk before you have even used the com-
piler. All in all I must agree that Aztec has
made an extremely nice compiler and
work atmosphere with room for improve-
ment.

I am constantly annoyed at the prejudice
that my fellow professionals show when
talking about the mouse interface. Field
said, "Certain computer applications do
not lend themselves well to the Mac user
interface. . . .Software development is just
such an application." Well, Aztec has now
integrated almost all the UNIX-like com-
mands into mouse-controlled pull-down
menus as well as leaving the line com-
mands as before. The cat command that
Field referred to is even under mouse con-
trol. I agree that line command systems
add needed ease and speed, but the idea
that a mouse menu-driven interface has
no place and cannot complement the sys-

tem is utterly wrong. I wish that all Macin-
tosh software was written with line and
mouse commands, giving us the best of
both methods.

Douglas J. Gardner
Riverdale, MD

NCR MODEL 4

Though Elaine Holden's review of the NCR
Personal Computer Model 4 (July 1985,
page 2 58) was a fair and accurate assess-
ment, it did fail to note the fact that the
P4 has a communications port arrange-
ment that differs from that of the IBM PC.
This is easily solved by getting a cable that
switches pins so that modems like Hayes
will work as shipped.

A more serious problem exists in the
NCR-DOS (versions 2.11 and lower), which
does not control one of the Coml; pins
used to start sending data again to devices
like an HP LaserJet printer after the buf-
fer is full. This causes the printer to pro-
duce several pages of a long document
and then hang up while your P4 waits in
vain for the send-again signal. The prob-
lem has been fixed in version 2.11.5 of
NCR-DOS. Customers may exchange their
original disks for the update version at no
charge. Unfortunately, some of the sale of-
fices that have received the updates are
not aware of what it fixes.

My experience with a wide variety of
programs has shown compatibility prob-
lems only with an early version of EM 100
(a terminal emulator program that will dial,
log on, and download files but will not
exit) and the Volkswriter Scientific word-
processing program, which requires IBM
DOS. Supplied with IBM DOS, the P4 can
run it.

The superior keyboard, drive gates,

good technical support, and operation of

the NCR P4s in the student lab have made

it my home as well as office computer.

John J. I^eacy

Dayton. OH

REVIEW FEEDBACK is a column of readers let-
ters. We welcome responses that support or challenge
BYTE reviews. Send letters to Review Feedback.
BYTE Publications, POB 372. Hancock. NH
03449. Name and address must be on all letters.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 287

BITE

Kernel

Computing at Chaos Manor:

Communicating

by }erry Pournelle 291

Chaos Manor Mail

conducted by }erry Pournelle 315

BYTE Japan: Highlights of Two Shows

by William M. Raike 317

BYTE U.K.: Tripos- The
Roots of AmigaDOS

by Dick Pountain 321

According to Webster: Programming

Tools and the Atari 520ST

by Bruce Webster 331

Circuit Cellar Feedback

conducted by Steve Garcia 346

Jerry Pournelle thought that things were about to settle down, that his chaotic
life at Chaos Manor would become somewhat less chaotic. This did not
happen, and he is starting to accept that the hectic pace he lives at is normal.
This is clearly shown in this month's column. Jerry covers a large number of
products (just look at the huge "Items Discussed" box). One of the new prod-
ucts he looks at is TUrbo Lightning from Borland International. Jerry predicts
that this thesaurus and spelling checker will be another winner for Borland.

Bill Raike reports on the 1985 Software and Data shows held in Japan in
October. T-Maker III and iBASE plus are two popular software packages he
found of interest at the Software Show, and the Kan-tamu telecommunica-
tions program also caught his attention. At the Data Show, 1200-bps modems
were evidence that it recently became feasible to attach direct-connect
modems to phone lines in Japan. The Data Show also featured some new
printers, and a new IBM PC-compatible from Sanyo was introduced.

This month Dick explains how Amiga got itself an operating system from
the British company Metacomco, and he discusses many of the operating
systems' innovative features. The Iftpos operating system, as it was originally
called, was based on a multitasking kernel developed as a doctoral thesis proj-
ect at Cambridge in 1976. When Metacomco was given the go-ahead to port
the operating system to the Amiga, the name was changed from Tl'ipos to
AmigaDOS.

Bruce Webster finally got his hands on one of the highly publicized new
computers, the Atari 520ST. This month's column contains his first impres-
sions of that machine. He also discusses TDI Modula-2/ST a new native-code
compiler. Bruce's product of the month is TUrboPower Programmer's Utilities,
a package of nine programs for TUrbo Pascal owners. He closes out the col-
umn by looking at new and previously mentioned Macintosh products.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 289

HrfBfmH!

TPEEK

CGreek3

StandardJt^-
Standard
Microprint

To)

Small Plain
S PL. Italics

Cautql
u

•otiitfl

BDIBI
Px>etortan cMhc^

sRoman3B

fffolD

Small Bold
SBQ.ltalics

We printed these typefaces "as-is" on an Epson MX-80.

Presentations! Flyers! Signs! Over-
head Foils! Invitations! Menus!
Logos! Announcements! Ban-
ners! Layouts! When you need a good
looking visual quickly you need
FONTASY— superb typefaces and sim
pie drawing in one easy-to-use package.

FONTASY gives you a "what-you-see-is-
what-you-get" picture, as you type and draw
on the graphics screen of your IBM-PC. You
can create a page at a time, see a mini-picture
of that page, print it, and save it on disk.
Page size is limited only by memory, not by
screen size.

Features

Proportional space, justify, kern, bold- face,
re arrange, magnify, black/white reversal, ro-
tate, mirror image, lines, rectangles, ovals,
draw, fill-in, undo (and un-undo), on-line
help, 200-page book, and easy control from
keyboard or mouse. Corporate licenses
available.

Fonts, fonts, and more fonts! We have over
275 typefaces in our growing library, and will
be happy to send you free print samples on
request.

When you deal directly with the manufac-
turer (that's us), you pay rock-bottom dis-
tributer prices. If you order FONTASY now,
we will give you all 28 fonts shown above (a
$50 value) at no extra charge. With so many
features at such a low price, FONTASY
belongs in your software library even if you
alread\- have a "font" program.

290 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

What You Can Do
With

Equipment
Needed

IBM-PC, XT, AT. or true
compatible (Compaq,
etc. ) with graphics adap-
ter and graphics monitor.
256K memory needed
for partial pages, 448-
512K recommended for
full pages. Dot-matrix
printer. Mouse optional.
MS-DOS 2.10 or above.
We show our fonts ftill-
size(not photo reduced )
and unretouched. We
printed them on an
Epson MX-80, and their

r*

i
i

1-800-824-7888,

sizes may vary on some other printers. FONTASY

supports: IBM graphics printer, Proprinter; Epson

FX, JX. L\, MX, RX t and LQ- 1500; C Itoh 8510,

1550,1570, Prowriter-Jr; IIP LaserJet; Microline

92, 93; Gemini 10X,15X; Radio Shack DMP

105-430, 2100; Toshiba 351, 1340-1351; Star;

and most Epson-compatibles.

Money-Back
Guarantee

We are the real, original PROSOFT,
the company that has been a leading
upplier of TRS-80 word processing and
font software since 1980.

Fontasy is not copyprotected and has a
30-day money-back guarantee. So, take advan-
tage of our breakthrough price and order
now TOLL FREE:

1

I

operator 669 (

For further information and same day shipping, call: (818) 765-4444

I

pixm

FONTASY

$49.95 |

7248 Bellaire Ave

Box 560

No. Hollywood, CA 91603-0560

Tax

Shipping
Total

-Company—
-Telephone-

Name

Address

City. State. ZIP

Visa/MC

Computer

Terms: M/C, Visa, checks. PJea.se add S.V00 shipping and handling in I'.:
Canada. 5 20.00 overseas. S2.CM) for C.O.D.,and sales tax in Calif.

. Memory.

. Printer.

_ Kxp. Date _

._- I

Inquiry 268

COMPUTING

AT CHAOS MANOR

Communicating

Ampro Little Boards

MPI Printer

Laser BDS 630/8

Kaypro 286i

OmniTel 1200

Crosstalk

TUrbo Lightning

TtirboLink

UNlock

Ready!

Modula-2 Compiler

Stride 440

Quick BASIC

by Jerry Pournelle

]erry Pournelle holds a doctorate in

psychology and is a science- fiction

writer who also earns a comfortable

living writing about computers

present and future.

I keep thinking that things will settle
down to normal. I suppose one of
these days I'll have to admit it: the
hectic, pace I live at is normal and I'd bet-
ter get used to it. Friends go further. They
tell me I'd hate it if things slowed down to
a walk, and I ought to count my blessings
since there are plenty of writers who'd be
glad to swap places with someone who has
too many contracts. All of this is probably
true, but it doesn't help much when my
desk is piled three feet deep in paper, and
the Federal Express man arrives cursing the
seven packages he has to carry up the walk.
Actually, this month wasn't so bad, except
that I managed— through total mismanage-
ment—to have engagements in three sepa-
rate cities— Los Angeles, Seattle, and San
Jose— on the same Friday. Rick Foss, my
crack travel agent, is a wizard, but not even
he could manage that one. I had to beg off
from my Los Angeles speech. The San lose
trip was for CONTACT, an annual conference
of science-fiction writers and anthropolo-
gists that is perhaps my favorite convention
of the year. I arranged to have my CONTACT
speech moved to Saturday, fly to Seattle
Thursday morning for my meeting with
Microsoft, make my Seattle speech Friday
morning, and catch a dinner flight for San
Jose.

It almost worked, except that Hurricane
Diane not only stranded Microsoft's chair-
man, Bill Gates, on the East Coast but also
delayed my Seattle-to-San Jose flight by
three hours. It turned out well, though: I
may have missed Bill Gates, but I saw a lot
at Microsoft; and while waiting in the airline
lounge, I met a former senior official from
Apple who was also going to San Jose.
Given the delay we both had more scotch
than usual, which gave me a chance to learn
things I'd never have known.

Promises

For the past year, Mrs. Roberta Pournelle
has been using the Zenith Z-l 50 and Word-
Star. She's been happy enough with the

Zenith, but sometimes she goes on a trip
and takes the Otrona Attache, or we work
together with Zeke, the CompuPro Z80.
Both of those machines run WRITE, the text
editor that Ibny Pietsch designed to suit
Larry Niven and me; and after a session
with WRITE, she hates to go back to Word-
Star. I really can't blame her either.

When we first set up her Zenith Z-l 50, she
was experimenting with Steve Ciarcia's
speech-synthesis boards and the KoalaPad.
Both of those demand a PCompatible ma-
chine. I had explained that WRITE wouldn't
run on the Zenith. "But you ought to learn
WordStar." I told her. "Everyone ought to
know WordStar. It's the closest thing to a
universal editor we have in this business."

She agreed and, indeed, wrote her read-
ing book with WordStar, but like most cre-
ative writers, she was never entirely happy
with it. WordStar is universal and versatile,
but it never becomes fully transparent; and
for creative writing, transparency is second
only to not losing text. "When will we have
WRITE for my machine?" she kept asking.

"Real Soon Now." Alas, that was the only
answer I could give; Tony keeps promising
to do a version of WRITE for PCompatibles.
and now that CompuPro is selling the S-100
PC Video board that Tony designed, it
seems even more reasonable that he'll get
it done; but so far it just hasn't happened.

There were other irritations, including
problems converting her WordStar files into
something I could work on before we sent
it to our agent. The upshot was that I men-
tioned that it was about time I set her up
with a machine that would run WRITE. I said
that on Saturday morning about an hour be-
fore we were supposed to leave for Ibm and
'Iferri Pinckard's annual weekend party in
Santa Maria.

"Sure. I don't believe you."

"Eh?"

"You've said this monthly for nearly a
year, but all I get is promises. We'll go up
to the party and come back Sunday night.

{continued)

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 291

Inquiry 341

Top

Quality

Programming

Tools

from the

Developers

of the

TurboPower

Utilities

Turbo
EXTENDEFt

Tired of fighting 64K Code and Data Segments?

Bored while waiting for your 1 0,000 liner to Compile?

Want to optimize those sluggish Overlays?

LARGE CODE MODEL

TS

h

Write Turbo Pascal programs using all 640K of
MSDOS memory, based on any number of separately
compiled modules. Provides complete parameter
passing using normal Pascal syntax. Heap and Data
Segment are shared between all modules. No
memory-resident kludges or unnatural parameter
passing schemes. Comes with a utility which
automatically converts your existing applications.

LARGE DATA ARRAYS

T~

h

Transparently access 1 and 2 dimensional arrays of
any conceivable size and type. Four models support
Normal RAM to 640K, Expanded memory (EMS) to
2Meg, Virtual (Disk-based) to 30Meg, and sparse
arrays like the most advanced spreadsheets. Comes
with a fast full-screen array browser.

MAKE FACILITY

A Unix-like MAKE program that is optimized for
the Turbo EXTENDER large code model. Rebuild
multi-module programs with no wasted effort.

h

OVERLAY ANALYST

TS

Perform Static and Dynamic analysis of overlayed
Turbo programs. Determine sizes of all procedures
in each overlay group. Monitor the running program
to find the number of overlay reads, procedure calls,
and the load address of all procedures.

AND EVEN MORE!

T"

J

DISK CACHE can be incorporated in your program to
speed up disk reads for data bases, overlays, et al.
Multi-file full screen BROWSE works on any text file.
Pascal ENCRYPTOR makes your source safe from
prying eyes, improves compile speed 15-30% and
leaves the code 100% functional. SHELL generator
creates fast compiling shells of unexercised code.

Two DSDD disks with complete Source Code
100 page printed manual, 30 day guarantee!

Requires Turbo Pascal 3.0

and DOS 2.X or 3.X. Runs on

IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles. .

Call for generic MSDOS support. ^ complete.

aay guaramei

!$85

Also get the TurboPower Utilities

with the acclaimed Pascal Structure Analyzer

Includes a Pretty Printer, Execution Profiler, and

powerful Text and Command Automation Tools.

With full source $95, executable only $55.

Credit Card Orders only call Toll-free 7 days per week
(US)800-538-81 57x830 (CA)800-672-3470x830
PO, COD, Dealers, Questions, Brochures, call or write:

478 W. Hamilton #196
Campbell, CA 95008
ph. 408-378-3672
M-F 9AM-5PM PST

lip®

CHAOS MANOR

When are you going up to see Bill
Godbout?"

"Uh, I leave Monday night—"

"And then Seattle and San Jose. You
won't be back for a week. Forget it."

I could see the beginnings of a
domestic crisis, and, worse, it really
was all my fault. "Okay," I said. "I'll do
it right now." With a little help from
the boys, I lugged her Zenith Z-l 50
upstairs to the workroom. Then I
brought down the Ampro Little Board
machine assembled by Don Castella
of Disks Plus (l 5945 West Pope Blvd.,
Prairie View, IL 60069).

It's quite a machine. It also runs
ZCPR instead of CP/M 2.2. While ZCPR
(a public-domain operating system) is
much better than CP/M 2.2, it's also
different, and the differences aren't all
that easy to learn.

There's plenty of documentation—
too much, in fact. The table of con-
tents is inadequate, and there's no in-
dex. One of my readers, Carl Hennig
of the University of Waterloo, recent-
ly sent me a reprint of some famous
quotes about indexing. Thomas Car-
lyle thought so little of books without
indexes that he condemned publish-
ers of same "to be damned ten miles
beyond Hell, where the Devil could
not get for stinging nettles." That may
be a bit harsh, but I do wish the ZCPR
documents were better arranged.

Anyway, my intention was to set up
the machine so that on power-up it
would log onto Roberta's own direc-
tory on the hard disk and then bring
up WRITE. That way, she wouldn't
have to understand CP/M, ZCPR, or
anything else. Of course, I'd have to
impress on her the importance of sav-
ing onto floppies as well as the hard
disk, but that could be done with an
instruction file put right into the
WRITE help file. (One of WRITE's
nicer features is that the help file can
be edited and expanded by the user.)

It took about half an hour to move
the machine, set it up. and be sure it
was working. Now for the start-up file.
Look in the Ampro documents . . .

Half an hour later I called Don
Castella. By then it was 2:00 p.m. on
a Saturday afternoon in Chicago, but
he was there. It took us another half

hour working by phone, after which
everything was running fine. Don got
something out of it, too: he's adding
some summary and index materials
to the documents that come with the
Ampro machines he sets up.

We went off to our party. Come
Monday, it was time to hook up a
printer. That shouldn't be hard at all.
After all. this is a CP/M system, WRITE
knows how to handle all kinds of
printers, and I have several. Hah.

The Great Printer Flap

The simplest way to hook up a printer
is through a parallel port. Parallel has
limits, among them that the cable can't
be too long, but it should be simple
to connect up. After all, the Centron-
ics cable connector is standard. . .

Well, no, it isn't standard. As it hap-
pens, the parallel printer I have handy
is an MPI (Micro Peripherals Inc.).
which is portable, fast, smart, and
plenty good enough for drafts. In a
double-blind experiment done by
Paul Chisholm, my own editors rated
MPI's letter-quality fancy output fairly
low on aesthetic appeal; but it's
acceptable. Chisholm wasn't using
WRITE, which knows a lot about how
to massage the MPI. There's also a
pretty good graphics capability. Most-
ly, though, the MPI is rugged and fast
and easy to set up, and WRITE knows
how to talk to it, so it was my first
choice.

Alas, the MPI was designed to work
with Zenith PCompatibles. The Zenith
uses the same cable connectors as
the IBM PC. The IBM PC doesn't use
Centronics connectors: it uses a
DB-2 5 connector, which looks just like
the plug on the end of an RS-232C
serial cable.

Naturally, the Ampro machine had
Centronics connectors. When Don
Castella set up the machine, he
thought I'd have cable problems and
made a couple of different printer
cables but none with a DB-2 5 plug. I
wondered if Priority One would have
such a cable, but I decided that it
didn't matter. Even if they did, there'd
be no time to go get it, set it up. in-
stall WRITE properly, and test every-

{cont'mued)

292 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

LETTER PERFECT

NOW! FULL FEATURE, 20 CPS, LETTER QUALITY PRINTER ONLY $299.95

If you have been searching for a letter
quality printer you probably found the
flood of claims and counterclaims were a
real roadblock in your search. Not long
ago, we were in the same position. We
tried to determine which daisy wheel
printer had all the features anyone could
want, but would also appeal to the cost
conscious buyer. Recently several
manufacturers introduced printers that
had features we were seeking. After a
thorough assessment we eliminated all
but one which precisely met our
qualifications.

THE RESULTS ARE IN

We found the printer which has all the
features anyone could want. We've
introduced it as the Aprotek Daisy 1120,
a real heavy-duty workhorse printing at
20 characters per second. The
manufacturer is Olympic Co. Ltd., a
highly respected Japanese firm.

FEATURES GALORE

This printer has it all. To start with, it
has a front control panel with indicators
for Pitch Selection which allows for 10,
12, or 15 characters per inch (CPI) or
Proportional Spacing. There is a Select
(Online) button (with indicator) and a
Line Feed button. You can also set Top-
of-Form or Form Feed with the touch of
the TOF button. Other front panel
indicators include Power and Alarm.

To load a sheet of paper, simply place
it in the feed slot and pull the paper bail
lever. The paper feeds automatically to a
1 inch top margin and the carriage aligns
to the selected left margin. In this man-
ner, each page will have identical margins.

You can also continue to use your
computer while the Daisy 1120
is printing.

The built in 2K buffer allows a page or
two of concurrent printing and use of
your computer for the next job. To really
take advantage of your printer's optional
features, the automatic Cut Sheet Feeder
eliminates tiresome paper handling. Also
available is the adjustable Tractor Feed
option. Compare our option prices!

Best of all the Daisy 1120 is quiet:
only 58 dB-A (compare with an average
of 62-65 dB-A for others).

COMPLETE COMPATIBILITY

The Daisy 1120 uses Diablo®
compatible printwheels. You can pop in
a 10, 12, 15 pitch or proportional
printwheel and use paper as wide as
13V2". At 15 CPI you can print 165
columns— a must for spreadsheets

The Daisy 1120 uses the Diablo
Hytype II® standard ribbon cartridges.
Again universally available.

Not only is the hardware completely
compatible, the control codes recognized
by the Daisy 1120 are Diablo 630®
compatible (industry standard). You can
take advantage of all the great features
of word processing packages and
automatically use superscripts, subscripts,
automatic underlining, bold-face (shadow
printing) and doublestrike.

The printer has a set of rear switches
which allow the use of standard ASCII as
well as foreign character printwheels.
Page length can be set to 8, 11, 12, or
15". The Daisy 1120 can also be switched
to add automatic line feed if required.

THE BEST PART

When pricing a daisy wheel printer
with all these features (if you could find

one), you would expect to pay hundreds
more. The options would add much
more, but our exhaustive research has
paid off for you the computer user. We
can now offer this printer for only
$299.95. Order yours today!

NO RISK OFFER

Try the Daisy 1120 for 2 weeks. If you
are not satisfied for ANY reason we will
issue a prompt refund. A full 1-year parts
and labor warranty is included with a
72-hour repair policy. Another indication
of quality and reliability.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Aprotek Daisy 1120 (Order#1120) $299.95

w/standard Centronics parallel interface,

2K buffer, ribbon and printwheel.

Options:

Auto Cut Sheet Feeder (#1110) $185

Bidirectional Tractor Feed (#1112) $75

Interfaces and Cables:

• 8' Shielded Cable for IBM PC ® and
hardware compatibles (#1103) $26

•Apple II, 11+ & He (#1104) $76

• Apple lie (#1109) $79

• Commodore (except Pet) (#1105) $44

Interfaces for most computers are available— call.

Technical Information & Customer
Service: (805) 987-2454 (8-5 PST)
ORDER TOLL FREE

(8-6 PST)

sssssssssn

(800) 962-5800 USA
(800) 962-3800 CALIF,

Or send order to Aprotek below:

Shipping in cont. US is $11. If you are in a hurry,
UPS Blue (second day air) is $22. Canada, Alaska,
Mexico and Hawaii are $25 (air). Other foreign is
$60 (air). California residents add 6% tax. VISA
& MC add 3%. We ship promptly on money

orders, cashier's checks, and charge cards.
Allow 14-day clearing for checks. No
C.O.D.'s. Payment in US dollars only.
©1985 APROTEK. All rights reserved.
Trademarks: Diablo, Hytype II,
630-Xerox Corp; Apple II, 11+ ,
lie-Apple Computer, Inc.;
m IBM PC-IBM Corp.

dPROKK

1071-A Avenida Acaso, Camarillo, CA 93010

y 27 for DEALERS ONLY

Inquiry 304

BRIEF:

"There is nothing this editor can't do

except make babies and I understand

that's in the next release."

— David Irwin, Data Based Advisor, 12/85

Tailor Editing to Your Style

• A high-level, readable Macro
Programming Language - allows
customization for programming
languages . . . Complete, unlimited
variables, etc.

• Edit multiple files of unlimited size
(2 Meg is OK)

• Multiple Windows on screen with
different or same file, fragments, etc.

• A bona-fide UNDO stack (up to 300)
of all operations: deletions, reading
files, search, translate, more.

For PC, AT, compatibles and
Tandy 2000.

Only $195

Full Refund if not satisfied in 30 days.

CALL 800-821-2492.

Full "regular expression search" -
wild cards, complex patterns

Reconfigurable keyboard

Adjustable line length - up to 512.

Keystroke macros - for common
typing sequences

Suspend BRIEF to execute, exit to
DOS - run another program (like a
compiler, dir, XREF, DIFF, or
DEBUG) then resume BRIEF
session

Compiler-specific support like auto
indent, syntax check, compile with-
in BRIEF

-Solution
«Systems

335-B. Washington St.. Nonvell. MA 02061
617-659-1571

LEARN LISP

Interactively and Write "Realistic" Programs
with TransLISP for Only $75

A "COMMON LISP" compatible Tutorial, Interpreter, Debugging, and
Pretty Printer plus a Fast, Full Screen Editor, Samples and Help

D Write Realistic Programs:

Short examples and substantial programs of
about 10 pages in length help you learn by
modifying, studying and using the key con-
cepts needed to write programs of 1000
lines or more.

□ The "COMMON LISP" Standard:

TransLISP includes a 230+ function
subset of the "COMMON LISP" Standard.
Use extras like the MSDOS interface and
graphics. Or use "strict compatibility" to
make programs written in TransLISP,
with no changes, work with other COM-
MON LISP systems like VAX LISP,
GC/LISP or LISP Machine LISP.

Use and Modify the Mailing List program
to learn how to handle "normal" programming in LISP.

Runs on any MSDOS or PC'POS Systems: Not copy-protected, TransLISP is available in just
about any 3", 5" or 8" format. PC compatibles can run TransLISP with no installation pro-
cedure. 192K memory and 1 floppy drive are the minimums required.

ONLY '" or '^Jri nners anc ' l:\perieneeil Programmer*

D Start Easily and Quickly:

A complete, modular tutorial helps you
learn LISP at your own pace. An in-
tegrated, interactive environment provides
all of the elements needed to enter, modify,
analyze and debug programs.

D Natural Language, Expert Systems and
Mailing List:

Natural Language concepts are illustrated
by a phone number retrieval program.
Choose the best word processing program
for you with the Expert System. File handl-
ing and typical data processing work are
demonstrated by a Mailing List program.

Ful

$75
refund if not

satisfied during
first 30 days.

-Solution
.Systems

335-B Washington St.
Norwell, Mass. 02061
617-659-1571
800-821-2492

CHAOS MANOR

thing; and as sure as anything, if I left
without testing the system, something
would go wrong.

I called Don Castella. Together we
pored through the Ampro documents.
They really are complete, if a bit con-
fused in organization. I also read to
him from the MPI manual, which is
quite well organized and comes with
an excellent analytical table of con-
tents. It told exactly how to make up a
Centronics-to-DB-2 5 cable; but, of
course, I didn't have either the time
or the equipment to do that.

Eventually it was obvious: we'd have
to use a serial printer. Installing serial
printers not premated to the com-
puter (as the MPI is to Zenith and
other PClones) can be a black and
frustrating art. Fortunately though. I
suddenly realized that I had a printer
that would work fine. "I've got a laser
printer," I said. "It's Diablo 630-
compatible. The Ampro has a serial
printer driver that will work with the
Diablo."

"Right," said Don. "What is this
printer?"

"Something new. It's called a Laser
BDS 630/8, and it came while I was
in Europe. We don't even- have it un-
crated yet. But it swears it's Diablo
630-compatible."

"Better uncrate it," Don warned.

We did. Everything looked standard.
The Laser BDS 630/8 came with a
thick book that gave complete infor-
mation about the pin layout in the
cable. I read it off to Don. There was
some tricky stuff about pin 20.
Castella thought for a moment then
said, "It sounds like a straight-through
RS-232C cable will work fine."

"Good. Those I have."

It took a bit more fiddling, of course.
I had to edit the start-up file for the
Ampro; the computer normally thinks
it's going to talk to a parallel printer,
and I wasn't going to try to teach
Roberta the mysteries of logical ver-
sus physical devices and device as-
signment with STAT.

The ZCPR start-up file has enormous
power; you can practically rewrite the
BIOS (basic input/output system) with
it. On the other hand, the instructions

[continued)

294 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 305

Doors Open When
You Know C

Vli

\l/~r w job )r.

— p- WKWBium^lefp»wM -'

\_L-i_JJ_W ///

£

w<4

~\B^i

Unlock Them With

The growth of the C language is nothing short
of phenomenal. Over the past five years, it has
emerged as the language of choice for most
major PC applications. Why? Speed, portability,
and compactness of code are a few of the
reasons. But more important, its structured
approach vastly reduces the time involved in
ANY programming task. It's a big step
beyond BASIC.

Now, Computer Innovations makes learning C
fast and easy with Introducing C. A unique,
interactive learning system, Introducing C
combines a thorough, self-paced manual with a
C INTERPRETER for fast results. Introducing C
provides a solid background in standard C
functions, operators, and data types including
structures, unions, arrays, and pointers. Plus the

©1986 COMPUTER INNOVATIONS, INC.

package includes a screen text editor, extensive
error diagnostics, and sample programs.

"...one of the best C training
systems I have seen ..." infoworld, 9/85

Introducing C is so effective, many
corporations have made it their standard C
training system. Make it your personal one!

Introducing d The Key To Your Future
ONLl 125 Not Copy Protected

CALL 800-922-0169

2 COMPUTER
M INNOVATIONS, INC.

980 Shrewsbury Avenue, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724 (201) 542-5920

EUROPEAN DISTRIBUTOR

Boston Micro, Inc., TELEX: 671-2477 BMI USA

Prices And Specifications Are Subject To Change Without Notice.

Inquiry 85

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 295

CHAOS MANOR

for doing that are not precisely a
model of clarity. With Castella's help,
the job got done.

"Now for the acid test." I was still on
the phone to Chicago. I connected up
the printer and turned it on.

The Laser BDS 630/8 looks a lot like
the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet, which is
reasonable since both are built
around the Canon laser engine. My
assistant dug out the BDS laser car-
tridge; it looked identical to the one
used in our Canon copier. Certainly
it went in as easily.

Everything warmed up. I loaded in
the print test file that comes with
WRITE. It's designed to test every
possible feature of a printer: horizon-
tal and vertical spacing, boldface
printing, underlining, alternate char-
acter sets; if the printer is supposed
to be able to do it, WRITE and that
test file will make it happen. "Here
goes," I said. 1 swear I could hear
Castella holding his breath.

A couple of seconds later we knew.
"Works fine. Works just like the HP
LaserJet."

In fact, I was wrong. The Laser BDS
630/8 works better than the LaserJet, at
least for the printing we were doing.

BDS

Some years ago, an MIT student
named Leor Zolman wrote one of the
first Z80 CP/M C compilers. (It's still
one of the cheapest and best ways to
experiment with the C language, and
a lot of good programs have been
written with it.) For reasons of his
own, Leor called it BDS C and named
his company Brain Damaged Software.

The Laser BDS 630/8 has no con-
nection with Zolman's BDS. I have
searched through the manual, and if
BDS stands for anything, I can't find
it. Probably the initials of the founders
or something. Anyway, BDS has a
heck of a printer.

The print resolution is what you'd
expect from a laser printer. BDS
claims 300 by 300 dots to the inch,
and it looks it. This is the same resolu-
tion as the LaserJet, of course; it has
to be, since they're both using the
Canon engine.

The Laser BDS 630/8 has 24 K bytes

of data buffer, meaning that it will
hold five or six pages of single-spaced
text. Like the LaserJet, it's quiet and
fast, turning out about eight pages a
minute with great regularity. (The first
page takes about 20 seconds.) The
sheet feeder works fine.

The BDS has better controls than
the I-aserJet and gives more informa-
tion, including the page number of
the last page it has received. You can
"hard-set" margins the same way that
you would on a Diablo; indeed, as far
as I can see, the Laser BDS 630/8 will
do just about anything a Diablo will
except feed fanfold paper.

Spelunking the BDS manual yields
an interesting fact: there's an error
message, CI 7, that "requests that you
insert an envelope, then press Re-
sume." I have looked all through the
manual and can't find another refer-
ence to envelopes, so perhaps this is
an unimplemented capability. I'd sure
like to be able to do envelopes in a
laser printer.

There's another anomaly. The other
day, Don Hawthorne, our hardwork-
ing editorial assistant, decided it was
time to order new cartridges for the
Canon copy machines. I asked him to
order some for the laser printer while
he was at it.

"Which one?"

I had forgotten that we had two.
"Both. Get spares for both the HP and
the BDS. I expect they're the same
anyway."

"The BDS cartridge looked just like
the one for the copier," Don said.

"It looked like it, but it can't be the
same. The resolutions aren't the same.
Look it up, here's the BDS manual."

An hour later Don gave up. The BDS
manual has one, and only one, refer-
ence to ordering the laser cartridge,
and that gives only a BDS company
part number. We could, 1 suppose,
have opened up the machine and
found the Canon number of the car-
tridge that's in there, but Mrs.
Pournelle was using the printer at the
time. The manual I have is obviously
a test version: I expect BDS will give
the Canon part number in the final
edition.

I'm not an expert on printers. All I

do is use them. I can say that we've
used the LaserJet and the Laser BDS
630/8 pretty intensively in the past
month, and both have worked flaw-
lessly. The BDS is a bit easier to con-
trol, and the documents show how to
hook it up as either serial or parallel,
change driver protocols, etc. None of
that is child's play, but if you know
what you're doing at all, the BDS doc-
uments are complete enough. There's
even a section on configuring Word-
Star.

We've become quite fond of the
Laser BDS 630/8. The only problem
I foresee with it is that Mrs. Pournelle
doesn't need that much printer. Once
I get a cable made up, she'll have to
make do with the MPL so we can lib-
erate the Laser BDS 630/8 for the of-
fice staff. Now all I have to do is ex-
plain that to her. . .

Collegiate Computing

Frank, my second-oldest boy, has just
started college at the University of
Southern California. While I was pret-
ty well disgusted by that television
commercial that implied that any kid
who hadn't grown up with a home
computer would inevitably flunk out
of college, I also know that I'd have
benefited enormously from having a
computer when I was an undergrad-
uate. Alas, there's a lot of truth to the
old story of the cobbler's children go-
ing barefoot; as 1 write this, I haven't
set him up with a computer system.
Partly, it's a problem of embarras de
richesses: there are far too many to
choose from. But I've got to make up
my mind.

Indeed, it's a good topic for this col-
umn to address in the months ahead.
Given an agreement that computers
are desirable (and certainly I think
they are), what is the best one for to-
day's first-year student? My oldest boy
was a computer science major, and
besides, there weren't so many choices
when he went off to school. Alex got
an S-100 system (and still has it).

Unlike Alex, Frank is monumentally
uninterested in computer science; he's
fascinated by the world of commerce
and takes courses in business and in-

{continued)

296 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

i i I

PPFPPP

THE DAISY THAT TAKES
YES FOR AN ANSWER

A D To set up the Facit D2000 daisy-
I6S * w w ^ ee ^ Primer, just respond to

# m printed questions using "yes" and
l ; - .,.,, ,„,,.... ,M " no " keys. This permits almost

****■«■* instant changes between
applications and host computers.

□ The printer produces very high letter quality
printing. And it does it fast - 24 cps.

□ Interfaces with most computers including IBM
PCs. And with most standard software, too. Both
parallel and serial interfaces are available.

□ An automatic paper injector takes care of the
entire paper loading operation when using fan-
fold and single cut sheets.

□ The D2000 can be equipped with inexpensive
tractor and cut-sheet feeders handling both Euro-
pean and American paper formats.

AUSTRALIA: EAI Electronics Associates Fty Ltd., 427-3322. A USTRIA: Ericsson Information Systems GmbH, 0222-613 641. BELGIUM: Ericsson S.A., 02-243 82 11.
CANADA: Facit Canada Inc., 416-821-9400. CYPRUS.- LBM (Lillytos) Ltd 516 46 34. DENMARK: Facit A/SA)2-9224QQ.FINLAND:QYFac\U9{)-42{)2LFRANCE.-Fach
S.A., 1-4780 7117. GREAT BRITAIN.- Facit 0634-40 17 21. C/?££C£: Computer Application Co. Ltd.,01-671 97 22. HON GkVNG :X?\\man& Co. Li±,5-893 00 22. ICELAND:
Gisli J. Johnsen HF; 354-64 12 22. INDIA.- Forbes Forbes Campbell &. Co.Ltd.,22-26 80 81. IRELAND: Ericsson Information Systems Ltd.. 75 30 93. ITALY: Facit Data Pro-
ducts S.p.A., 039-6363 31. 7/tfVW; Electrolux (Japan) Ltd., 03-479-3411. KOREA.- K.D.C Corporation, 723-8555/8236. THE NETHER LANDS: Ericsson Information
Systems BY, 03480-709 11. NEWZEALAND:Norihro[)\nslninwnls and Systems, 501^801. 501-219.A^O/?W4K- Ericsson Information Systems A/S. 02-35 5820. P0/?7t/-
GAL- Regisconla Sari, 1-56 00 91. SINGAPORE.- Far East Office Eqpts Pte Ltd., 745 82 88. SPAIN: Faeit, 91-457 11 11. SWEDEN.- Ericsson Information Systems Sverige
AB, 08-28 28 60. SWITZERLAND: Ericsson Information Systems AG, 01-3919711. WEST GERMANY.- Ericsson Information Systems GmbH, 0211-61090.

□ There is no other way to produce
No I m typewriter quality printings than to

* use a daisywheel printer.

□ The printer won't take up much
of your desk space as the footprint

is very small.

□ No annoying noise is produced thanks to a
specially designed, rubber enclosed concrete
platen.

□ Facit D2000 is not merely a converted type-
writer. It is specifically developed for your pro-
fessional computer printer applications.

Inquiry 373
Head Office: Facit AB, S-17291 Sundbyberg. Sweden. Phone: (8) 7643000.
USA: Facit Inc. P.O. Box 334, Merrimack. NH 03054. Phone.- (603) 424-8000

DeSmet
C

8086/8088

Development SlflQ

Package I US)

FULL DEVELOPMENT PACKAGE

Full K&R C Compiler

Assembler, Linker & Librarian

Full-Screen Editor

Execution Profiler

Complete STDIO Library (>120 Func)

Automatic DOS 1.X/Z.X SUPPORT

DOTH 8087 AND S/W FLOATING POINT

OVERLAYS

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

■ First and Second in AUG '83 BYTE
benchmarks

SYMBOLIC DEBUGGER

$50

Examine & change variables by

name using C expressions

Flip between debug and display

screen

Display C source during execution

Set multiple breakpoints by function

or line number

DOS LINK SUPPORT

$

35

Uses DOS .OBJ Format

LINKS with DOS ASM

Uses Lattice® naming conventions

Check: □ Dev. Pkg (109)

□ Debugger (50)

□ DOS Link Supt (35)

c

WAR E

CORPORATION

P.O. BOX C

Sunnyvale, CA 94087

(408) 720-9696

All orders shipped UPS surface on IBM format disks.
Shipping included in price. California residents add
sales tax. Canada shipping add $5, elsewhere add
S15. Checks must be on US Bank and in US Dollars.
Call 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. to CHARGE by VISA/MC/AMEX.
Street Address: 505 W. Olive, #767, (94086)

CHAOS MANOR

ternational relations. He's also work-
ing on the school paper. At the mo-
ment, his only interest in a computer
is as a word processor.

Of course, that will change. He's al-
ready taking physics; a small com-
puter with BASIC could help a lot with
that. Later there will be economics
courses, and I'm already on public
record as saying that the better com-
puter games, such as Strategic Simula-
tions' Cartels and Cutthroats and the
whole Blue Chip Software series of
economic simulations, can teach
more about economics than any of
the courses I took as an undergrad-
uate. It would be useful if he had a
machine that could handle those.

A few years ago, business plans and
economic models were pretty much
graduate subjects. No longer. Spread-
sheets and small computers have
taken complex forecasting from grad-
uate schools down to the undergrad-
uate level. Frank will need a machine
that can handle SuperCalc or Lotus
1-2-3 or the equivalent. He'll also need
to learn about the world of databases.

Finally, given that he's interested in
a computer only as a tool and doesn't
want to spend a lot of time learning
how to use one, it would be well if I
could provide him with something
that will last the whole four years he's
in school. That's not an absolute re-
quirement, of course; things flow in the
computer world. Today's marvel is to-
morrow's toy, and four years is a long
time in this volatile industry. Still, I
don't want to make him spend more
time than need be learning how to
use the system.

Choosing

Now that we understand the require-
ments, we can look at real choices.
The obvious one is the Macintosh. It's
easy to learn. MacWrite has lots of
problems, but it does work. Micro-
soft's Excel for the Macintosh is'the
best spreadsheet I know of, bar none.
Many economic games, including all
those from Blue Chip Software, run on
the Macintosh. I own two of them;
why not hand him one?

Almost as obvious is a PCompati-
ble. No purchasing agent ever got

fired for specifying IBM, and certain-
ly Frank isn't going to be worse off for
understanding how to use an IBM or
compatible. Excel is, in my judgment,
a better spreadsheet than Lotus 1-2-3,
but 1-2-3 is very nearly the standard
of the industry. As for text editors,
give him WordStar; everyone ought to
know it. We have half a dozen
PClones, including Eagle, Zenith, and
Big Tfcx, the TI Professional. Let him
borrow one of those.

There's another choice; set him up
with an 8-bit CP/M system. It's unlike-
ly he'll be using that system when he
graduates, but it will get him started
and has the advantage that he'll be
using WRITE, which is still the best
creative-writing text editor I know.
Kaypro makes some good 8-bit ma-
chines, or we could have Don Castella
put one together from Ampro Little
Boards. There's also the Companion
computer, which has been rather
thoroughly redesigned since my re-
view last May. Any of those would do.

There are other choices. As I write
this, I haven't decided, but I'm lean-
ing toward the PCompatible. The
Macintosh is easy to learn but slow.
Worse, it's a closed system with what
amounts to a proprietary operating
system. The new management at
Apple apparently regrets this and is
trying to make amends, but I find it
unlikely that four years from now the
Macintosh will have achieved great
penetration into the business com-
munity. Finally, while CP/M systems
may well be optimal for those with
severe cost constraints, I'm fortu-
nate—I don't have that problem.

Which compatible? Both Zenith and
Texas Instruments make portable
(well, luggable) models of their
PClones. Luggability could be conve-
nient for college students. The Zenith
is more PCompatible than the TI. But
the TI has those wonderful natural-
language interface programs that
make it both easy to learn and easy
to use. There's lots of business soft-
ware. Either would use one of the por-
table MPI printers.

Last-minute addition; At the Heath
User Group show I saw the new

[continued]

298 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

A brand-new, incomparable concept that fills the gap.

FREEBASE, THE MULTI-PURPOSE
TREE TEXT" DATA BASE SYSTEM

The traditional data base systems for micro-computers have three serious shortcomings.

To begin with, the same space must be reserved for all the data to be entered. That costs

ca pacit y.

The search properties must be fixed in advance. That costs flexibility and ease of handlin g.

Furthermore, access through various entries must take place by means of complicated and

lengthy sorting procedures. That costs time and trouble.

Freebase has solved these problems. Freebase, developed at the University of Leiden (Holland),

and perfected by CAT Benelux, is a unique data base management system for MS-DOS/PC-DOS

microcomputers.

Its most important features are:

- Freebase processes all unstructured data (regardless of length).

- Freebase has a full-text search at mainframe speed.

- Freebase is a network orientated data base system for text.

- Freebase interfaces standard with all video-disk players (Philips, Sony, Pioneer), using
either PAL or NTSC.

- Freebase works with a perfect human interface.

Freebase is an NDBMS, with opportunities for the micro-computer user which were pre-
viously unimaginable. The unique advantages also make Freebase attractive for forgotten user's
groups, such as curators, librarians, archivists and others who work with collections of large
quantities of documents.

Philips has selected Freebase for exclusive distribution within the Benelux countries.
CAT Benelux is currently establishing an international distribution network. Freebase sells in
Europe for around $ 1.400.-.

Freebase version 4.00 will be released in English, French, German and Dutch at the CeBIT in
Hannover (Hall 16, stand 903B).

For more information: visit us at CeBIT, or call or write CAT, Computer Assisted Televideo Benelux BV,
Dorpsweg 78, 1697 KD Schellinkhout, Holland. Telephone: (31) 2293-1682. Telex: 35307 CATBE NL

CAT Benelux, Freebase, MS-DOS, PC-DOS, Philips, Pioneer and Sony are registered trademarks.

Computer Assisted Televideo-benelux bv

Inquiry 384

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 299

iiiimuHiiHtinnrartiMaiHiu -

helps save time, money and cut frustrations. Compare, evaluate, and find products.

wmm

Programmer's Referral List • Dealer's Inquire
Compare Products • Newsletter

Help find a Publisher * Rush Order

Evaluation Literature FREE * Over 700 products
BULLETIN BOARD - 7PM to7AM 617-826-4086

Al- Expert System Dev't

Free Literature - Compare Products

Evaluate products. Compare competitors. Leam about new alterna-
tives . One five call brings information on just about any programming
need. Ask for any "Packet" or Addon Packet □ AI D ADA. Mcxlula
□BASIC D'C 1 DCOBOL DEditors DFORTH DFORTRAN
□PASCAL DUNlX/PCorDDebuggers, Linkers

RECENT DISCOVERY

Visual Computer: 8088 - Simulates
demos or any ,cxc,Com. Debugger.
350 pg. tutorial $ 59

ExpertEASE - Develop by describing
examples of how you decide. Call

EXSYS - All RAM, Probability. Why.
Trees, Solid, files, popular PCDOS $359

I st Class - by example, interfaces $250

INSIGHT I - Probabilities, required
thresholds, menus, fast PCDOS $ 79

INSIGHT 2 - adds backward, forward, par-
titions, dB2, lang. access. PCDOS $399

Others: APES ($359), Advisor ($949),
ES Construction ($ 100), ESP ($845),
Expcrtcach $399. Expert Choice ($449),

List Our

GC LISP - "Common", rich.
Interpreter - Interactive Tutorial $495 Call
LARGE Model - 2 to 1 5 meg. $695 $649
Compiler and LM. Intcrp. $1 190 1045

ExpcrLisp - Interpreter: Common
LISP syntax, lexical scoping,
toolbox, graphics. Native Code
COMPILERS 1 2K MAC $465

TLC LISP - "LISP-Machinc" - like, all
R AM , classes, turtle graphics, 8087,
compiler. CPM-86, MSDOS $225

TransLISP - formerly LISP-86 $ 75

WALTZ LISP- "FRANZ LISP"- like, big
nums, debug, CPM-80 MSDOS $149

Others: IQLISP($I55),BYS0($I25),
MuLISP-86($l99)

Al- PROLOG

ARITY PROLOG - full, debug, ASM, C,

virtual. Compiler $1950 MSDOS $495
MicroProlog - enhanced $229

MPROLOG - Rich syntax, editor, segment
work space, portable. PCDOS $725

Professional MicroProlog MSDOS $359
TransPROLOG -Learn Fast. Standard,

tutorials, samples MSDOS Call

Others: Prolog- 1 ($359), Prolog-2 ($ 1 895),

Editors for Programming

BRIEF Programmer's Editor- undo,
windows, reconfigure PCDOS Call

C Screen with source 80/86 $ 75

EM ACS by UniPrcss- powerful,
multifile, windows, DOS, MLISP,
programming. Source: $949 $299

FirsTimc by Spruce - Improve
productivity. Syntax directed for
Turbo ($69), Pascal ($229), orC ($239)

PMATE - power, multitask 80/86 $159

VEDIT - well liked, macros, buffers,
CPM-80-86. MSDOS PCDOS $119

Balm

TransLisp- "Common subset, tutorial,
editor, PP, trace. Best to learn.

All MSDOS Only$ 95

C Support -Systems

Basic C Library by C Source $139
C Debug - Source debuggers - by

Complete Soft ($269), MSD ($ 1 49).
C Sharp - well supported, Source,

realtime, tasks MSDOS $600

C ToolSct - DIFF, xref, source $135

Lattice Text Utilities $105

The HAMMER by OES Systems $179

H.E.L.P. By Everest Solutions $329

C Language - Compilers

Fortran & Supporting

$ 59

Forlib + by Alpha - graph, comm.
Fortran >> C - FORTRIX creates

maintainable translations. MSDOS $995

MACFortran by Microsoft - full % 77 $239

MS Fortran $239
No Limit - Fortran Scientific

PolyFortran - xref, pp, screen $149

Prospcro - '66, reentrant $390

RM Fortran - enhanced "IBM Ftn" $429

Scientific Subroutines - Matrix $149

Statistician by Alpha $269

Strings and Things - registers, shell $ 59

TURBO PASCAL and SUPPORT

BORLAND: Turbo 3.0 $ 49

3.0 with 8087 or BCD $ 79

3.0 with 8087 and BCD $ 85

Turbo Graphix - graphs, windows $ 39

Turbo Toolbox or Editor $ 55

Turbo Tutor $ 29

TURBO . . . Asynch by Blaise, full $ 89

MctaWindow by Mctagraphics $ 49

Power Tools by Blaise - library $ 89

Power Utilities - profiler, pp $ 89

Professional - interrupts, macros, $ 50

OTHERS: Screen Sculptor ($99),
Pascal Pac ($ 1 00), Tidy ($45),
MultiHalo($89).

OTHER PRODUCTS

Btricvc/N ($469), single user $199

CPRINT - by ENSCO $ 50

DoublcDOS - concurrent $ 85

Faster C - scrap your linker $ 95

HTcst/H Format - thorough XT Fix $1 19

Microsoft Windows $ 75

Opt Tech Sort -sort, merge MSDOS $ 85

Panel - Screens, windows $239

Ask about Atari ST, Amiga

Call for a catalog, literature, and solid value

800-421-8006

THE PROGRAMMER'S SHOP™

1 28-B Rockland Street, Hanover, MA 02339
Mass: 800442-8070 or 617-826-7531 286

CPM80 $125

MSDOS Call

MAC $299

MSDOS $ 59

MSDOS $289

MSDOS $339

MSDOS $379

MAC $239

MSDOS $259

BDS C - solid value, fast

C86 by CI - 8087, reliable

Consulair Mac C w/toolkit

ECO C/88

Lattice C - from Lifeboat

Lattice C - from Lattice

Mark Williams - debugger

Mcgamax - tight, full

Microsoft C 3 .0 - new,

Q/C 88 by Code Works - Compiler source,

decent code, cross/native MSDOS $295
Wizard C - Lattice C compatible,

full sys. Ill, lint, fast. MSDOS $379

C Language - Interpreters

C-tcrp by Gimpcl - full K & R,. OBJ
and ASM, large progs. MSDOS $249

INSTANT C - Source debug, Edit to
Run-3 seconds MSDOS $399

Interactive C by IMPACC Associates.
Interpreter, editor, source
debugger, profiler. PCDOS

Introducing C - Interactive C to
learn fast, tutorial PCDOS

Professional Run/C has C plus
ability to create add-in libraries,
(Lattice C compatible) and load/
unload them. MSDOS

Run/C - improved MSDOS

$395

$115

$199
$109

C Libraries -General

Blaise C Tools \ ($109), C Tools 2 $ 89
C Food by Lattice - ask for source $119
C*LIB by Vance $129

C Utilities by Essential - Comprehensive
screen graphics, strings, file handling,
memory mgmt. Source. MSDOS $139
Entclckon C Function Library $119

Entclckon C Windows $119

Entclckon Supcrfonts for C $ 45

Grccnlcaf Functions -portable, ASM $149
Polytron - for Lattice, ASM source $ 99
Software Horizons - Pack I $129

C Libraries - Communications

Asynch by Blaise
Grccnlcaf - full, fast
Software Horizons - pack 3

$149
$149
$119

C Libraries -Files

FILES: C Index by Trio - full B +
Tree, vary length field, multi compiler
/File is object only $ 89

/Pro is partial source $179

/Plus is full source $349

CBTREE - multiuser record locking,
sequential, source, no royalties $99

Inquiry 267

CHAOS MANOR

8-MHz Zrl 00. It already runs CP/M-
and thus WRITE. Now there are not
one. but two different ways to make
it 97 percent PCompatible as well.
The Zrl 00 with one of the new com-
patibility boards may just be the best
possible low-cost machine for
students and small businesses alike.
Now all I have to do is stop think-
ing about it and decide. I have at least
another week . . .

Kat Compatibility Lessons

As described last month, Big Kat the
Kaypro 286i PC AT clone, had a cata-
strophic failure of his Seagate hard
disk. Nobody's quite sure what hap-
pened. When the technicians got to
work on him, they found that the disk
drive was so totally "munged," the
heads wouldn't move; no files were
recoverable. They had to replace the
hard-disk drive.

That was all they did. When they re-
turned Big Kat, he had the same cen-
tral processor, disk controller, mem-
ory, etc. What he didn't have, due to
my own carelessness, was backups of
the programs he'd had. Trying to get
everything running again was in-
structive.

The first thing was the operating sys-
tem: the technicians had installed PC-
DOS 3.1 on the hard disk; but they
hadn't put on all the utilities, like
CHKDSK.COM and the like. We had
the original IBM PC-DOS 3.0 that
came with the Kaypro 286i and trans-
ferred over the utilities using PC-
Sweep.

About half of them wouldn't work:
they'd return messages of "incorrect
DOS version." Eventually, we said
forget it and scrubbed DOS 3.1, refor-
matted the hard disk, and installed
DOS 3.0.

Next was GW-BASIC I took the
Heath/Zenith GWBASIC 2.0 and
copied it onto Big Kat's hard disk. In-
voked it.

"You cannot SHELL to BASIC" the
computer informed me. Since I was
certain that I'd used GW-BASIC before,
this threw me. A hasty search through
the BASIC manuals didn't help.
Neither did a longer one, nor did a
search through the DOS manuals.

I looked through the disks supplied
by Kaypro with the 286i and found
another copy of GW-BASIC 2.0. This
one seemed to work fine. I happily
began to install the computer games
I'm fond of, particularly Epyx's Crush,
Crumble and Chomp! (There's nothing
like flattening Washington after a hard
day's work!) It runs under BASIC. I set

it up, started it, made several moves,
and suddenly the game crashed. Did
it again. And again. Same thing. Each
time the forces of good shot at me,
the game crashed.

Could it be the keyboard? Or the
video monitor? I'm using the Enigma
Research Model 9000 business key-

[continued)

Why your next generation of
products should use our 5th
generation tools.

lo I -n

The Arity Expert Systems Development
Package

he Arity SQL Development Package

arity

We design and distribute
high quality, serious
application software for
the IBM PC, XT, AT
and all MS-DOS
compatibles.

[ Arity/Prolog Compiler and Interpreter V4

>

>

^

^

f ^

S

3

3

2>

O

□

tf

o 1

o_

/

Arity's integrated family of programming tools allows you to combine software written in
Arity/Prolog, the best of the fifth generation languages, with Arity SQL, the best of the
fourth generation languages, and with conventional third generation languages such as
C or assembly language to build your smarter application.

\bu can use Arity/Prolog to build expert systems using the Arity Expert Systems
Development Package. Or to build natural language frontends. Or to build intelligent
information management systems,. Arity/I^olog lets you build advanced technology into
your vertical applications package.

And more...

That's not the whole story. Arity s products are all designed tobe fast, powerful, serious.
Each of our products contains unexpected bonuses. Such as a one gigabyte virtual
database integrated into Arity/Prolog. The most powerful of its kind on a I^C.

Quality first. Then price.

In order to be the best, we had to prove it to our customers. Our tradition of quality
software design is reflected in every product we sell. Quality first. r rhen price. And we
always provide the best in customer support.

Our products are not copy protected. We do not charge royalties. We offer generous
educational and quantity discounts. And we have a 3t day money back guarantee.

Try us to know that we keep our promise on commitment to quality and reliability. Try
us by using our electronic bulletin board at 617-369-5622 or call us by telephone-you
can reach us at 617-371-2422.

Or fill in this coupon. Whetheryou order today or not, let us send you full descriptions
of our integrated family of Arity products.

Please complete chis form to place your order and/or rt/qucst derailed information.

Arity/PrologCnmpilcr and Interpreter V4 $745.00

Arity/Proloj> Interpreter V4 . . , ; $.150.00

Ariry Standard IVolog $ 95.1)0

AritySQL Development Package $295.01)

Arity Kxpert System Development Package $295.00

Arity Screen Design Toolkit $ 49.*J5

Arity Pile Interchange T««lkit $ 49.95

'ITyiAt.AMOUNT<MAa-5)doits wJd S%-a).:su.x>n - JicM.-pti<.ts iiuludo.liilVinRtoallll.S. tilled

NAME, ,

SHIPPING ADDRESS

crry/sTAn-yzip

TELEPHONE

Payment: D Check Q PO U AM EX U VISA O MC

Card # Exp. date

Signature , -

ARfrY CORIORATION • 358 BAKER AVENUE • CONCORD. MA 01742

Quantity Info only

arity

Inquiry 28

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 301

SHIFT YOUR

HARD DISK

BACK INTO
HIGH GEAR

iiiiii|Liiiiii|hP

Mill

ONLY

with

rfii

imKzer

$49. 95

S pecial Introductory Price

Tunes Your Disk Files For Highest Performance

The Disk Optimizer organizes your disk to make your
PC run faster. You'll discover faster program loading,
faster file loading and sorting, faster file creation, faster
backups to diskette. And the disk Optimizer reduces
the chances of error during your disk I/O.

BBBBBBBB
BBBBBBBB

DDDD
DDDD

—

FFF
FFF

DOS IS SLOWING YOU DOWN!

Whether you realize it or not, the more you use your
hard disk, the slower it is likely to react. This is because
the operating system (PC-DOS/MS-DOS) stores
things (programs, overlays, batches, etc.) randomly,
wherever unused disk space is available. Your operat-
ing system doesn't keep pieces of the same file
together. This means slower access time. Lost speed.
Lost productivity.

Order Toil-Free:
1-800-272-9900

TURN THE THROTTLE BACK UP!

Now, the Disk Optimizer puts the zip back into your
hard disk! The Disk Optimizer collects all the scattered
pieces of your files and re-stores them together in
neat, well-organized areas on your disk. The result:
immediate performance improvement . . . faster
loading programs (and their overlays) . . . faster
sorting . . . faster loading and storing spreadsheets
or document files.

BONUS EXTRAS - at no extra cost

'& DISK ANALYZER

Displays a visual performance analysis . . . shown in
percentages. . .for any disk or diskette.

^ PERSONAL FILE SECURITY

Password protect any file or program.

^ FILEPEEKER

Now you can visually examine any file on your system.

$49. 95 *

SoftLogic , !M

*— — ^— ^— — - Inquiry 298

SOLUTIONS

Creators ofDoubleDOS

530 Chestnut Street, Manchester, NH 03101
1-800-272-9900. In NH, call 627-9900

Disk Optimizer works with IBM PC's and true compatibles.

*Plus $5.00 Shipping & Handling

Inquiry 333

CHAOS MANOR

board (which is much nicer than the
keyboard that comes with the Kaypro)
and a 19-inch Zenith high-resolution
Video Component System color mon-
itor. I changed back to original Kaypro
components. The game still crashed.

"It always worked before," I raged.
Eventually it came to me: when I first
got Big Kat I didn't have GW-BASIC
2.0. 1 dug out the old copy of 1.0 and
installed that. The game works fine
now.

I suppose there's a moral to this
story.

Back On Line

I use Big Kat primarily for communica-
tions. In particular, I've been using the
OmniTel 1200 internal modem with
Crosstalk. This combination works
well with Borland's SuperKey and
SideKick, and I was quite happy with
them once I got used to Crosstalk's
command structure. Before I got the
OmniTel 1200 I'd used MITE, and we
had a new copy of that, so I thought
I'd give it a try.

It turned out not to be as simple as
I thought. One of the nice features
about the Omnilfel modem is that you
can set it to use port 3 or port 4. We'd
originally set it up as port 4. Crosstalk
has no problem with that. MITE does.
The MITE communications program
is almost totally menu-driven. If you
want to tell it which communications
port to use. you don't type in a 3 or
a 4; you press return to toggle
through 1 , 2 , 3 - and back to I . There
is no way to tell MITE you're using
port 4. We'd have to reset the Omni-
Tel; no big deal, but work.

Naturally, the documents for the
OmniTel got misplaced during the
move upstairs. Eventually, though,
Alex was able to set the Omnflfel, and
we installed MITE. I used it to call BIX.
the BYTE Information Exchange con-
ferencing network that absorbs a lot
more of my time than it ought to.
MITE's menu system is a bit awkward:
unlike Crosstalk, MITE has no single
screen display that summarizes every-
thing. To see what the various settings
are. you have to go from one menu
to another. That takes time.

There are other annoyances. Cross-

talk has a status line. I'm not fond of
status lines that you can't turn off (I'd
like to be able to toggle it on and off
at will), but I do rather like the way
Crosstalk tells me how long I've been
logged on. MITE doesn't have that
feature, and I miss it. Worse, while I
had no trouble at all telling Crosstalk
that I wanted to change the "atten-
tion" key from Escape to AIM— you
just go into setup and press the key
that you want to be the attention get-
ter—that's very hard to do with MITE.

The final blow came when I tried to
use the SideKick editor with BIX.
SideKick has a great feature: while
logged on to BIX, you can write a
short essay and edit in SideKick, then
squirt the text out through the
modem. The procedure is simple and
well documented and works fine with
Crosstalk. When I tried it with MITE,
nothing but garbage went out. I
looked through the MITE manuals but
saw no obvious explanation. Back to
Crosstalk, which I'm still using.

I'm told there's a later version of
Crosstalk that has even more ad-
vanced features. Meanwhile, I've sent
to OmniTel for the new documents.
I've been using the Omnilfel— it's as
Hayes-compatible as it's possible for
a non-Hayes modem to be— and
Crosstalk for six months now, and I
like them. I expect to like the im-
proved versions even more.

Rambo?

A few days after I'd switched Big Kat
back to Crosstalk, I got a call from
Philippe Kahn of Borland Interna-
tional. When Philippe has developed
something he likes, he's not shy of tell-
ing about it. "I have this fantastic new
program," he said. "You'll love it. On-
line thesaurus and spelling checker,
and it's very fast and sophisticated,
and you're going to say it's fantastic,
and. . ."

Eventually he slowed down. I ad-
mitted that it sounded great. "So
when do I get a copy?" I asked.

"I'll send it over your modem. It's
too secret, 1 don't trust the mails."

"Sounds a bit odd. Besides, I've
never received any programs by

{continued)

Number One
in Performance

68010/68000
Coprocessor for

IBM/AT/XT/PC-

8/10/12.5mz No Walt States

$ 1295°°Qty.1

FEATURES

•1-2 MB RAM (1MB Standard)
•16K-64KEPR0M
•2-8 Serial Ports
Async/Sync/Bisync Communications

• Battery-backed Real Time Clock

• Battery-backed 2K-8K RAM

• 2 Parallel Ports
•68881 Math Coprocessor

• Memory-mapped Dual-port BUS

• 3-9 Users Per Board (3 Standard)

• Up To 16 Boards Per AT/XT/PC

• Can Operate As Standalone Processor

SOFTWARE

• 0S9 (Powerful UNIX-like Multi-user OS)
•CPM/68K

• Software selectable OS including concurrent
PC D0S/0S-9 or CPM/68K operation

• Support Module for IBM Graphics

• High-speed Local/Global Disk Caching

• Basic, Pascal, Fortran, C, and COBOL

Systems

West: 4704 W. Jennifer, Suite 105, Fresno. CA 93711, 209/276-2345
East: 67 Grandview, Pleasantville. NY 10570, 914/747-1450
DistributonTelemarketing Services, Inc.
1897 Garden Ave., Eugene. OR 97403, 503/345-7395

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 303

The Best C Book
+ A Powerful C Compiler

One Great C Value $ 39.95

A good C book just isn't complete without a good C
compiler to go with it. That's why we give you both. You get
a comprehensive 450 page book and a full feature standard
K&R C compiler with the Unix V7 Extensions. The Book is
loaded with examples that teach you how to program in C.
And our fast one pass C compiler comes with an equally fast

linker so you don't waste a lot of time watching your disk
drives spin. You also get a Unix compatible function library
that contains more than 150 functions (C source code
included). And if all that isn't enough, we off eryou a 30 day
money back guarantee. So what are you waiting for? The
exciting world of C is just one free phone call away.

Language Features

Functions

abs

conbuf

feof

getcseg

Isascll

movmem

replace

sircat

• Data Types: char, short,

asm

cone

ferror

getdseg

iscntrl

open

repmem

stremp

int, unsigned, long, float,

asmx
atan

cos
cpystr

fflush
fgets

getd
putd

isdlglt
islower

outp
peek

rewind
right*

strcpy
strlen

double

atof

creat

fileno

getdate

isprint

perror

rlndex

strncat

atol

cursblk

filetrap

getthne

ispunct

poke

rmdlr

strnemp

atol

curslin

find

getl

isspace

poseurs

scanf

strncpy

• Data Classes: auto,

bdos

curscol

floor

putl

isupper

pow

setbuf

strsave

bdosx

cursrow

fopen

getkey

ltoa

printf

setbufslz

system

extern, static, register

bios

cursoff

fprintf

routs

fread

getmode

keypress

putc

setcolor

tolower

biosx

curson

setmode

putchar

setdate

toupper

calloc

delete

sets

len

puts

settlme

ungetc

• Typedef, Struct, Union,

ceil

drand

free

a

■a c

!og

putw

setjmp

ungetch

unfink

write

Bit Fields, Enumerations

cfree
chain

exec
exeel

freopen
fscanf

loglO

loogjmp

lseek

rand
read

setmem
sin

character

execv

feeek

hypot
index
inp

readattr

sound

writechs

• Structure Assignment,

chdir
chmod

exit
exltmsg

ftell
fwrite

malloc
alloc

reach
writech

sprintf
sqrt

xmembeg
xmemend

Passing/Returning

clearerr
close

exp

fabs

getc
getch

insert
lofllter

mathtrap
mld$

readdot
wrltedot

srand
sscanf

xmemget

xnemput

Structures

clrscrn

fclose

putch

isalnum

mkdir

realloc

stacksiz

xmovmem

cmpstr

fdopen

getchar

isalpha

modf

rename

str$

_«xit

MIX Editor
$ 29.95

When you're programming in a high
level language you need a high power-
ed editor. That's why we created a
programmable full/split screen text
processor. It lets you split the screen
horizontally or vertically and edit two
files at once. You can move text back
and forth between two windows. You
can also create your own macro com-
mands from an assortment of over

100 predefined commands. The editor
comes configured so that it works just
like Wordstar but you can change it if
you prefer a different keyboard layout.
The editor is a great companion to our
C compiler. Because they work so
well together we want you to have
both. To make sure you do, we're
offering the editor for just $15 when
purchased with the C compiler.

ASM Utility
$10

The ASM utility disk allows you to link
object files created by Microsoft's MASM
or M80 assemblers. Lots of useful assem-
bly language functions are included as
examples.

ORDERS ONLY

1-800-523-9520

IN TEXAS

1-800-622-4070

NOT COPY PROTECTED

Canadian Distributor
Saraguay Software: 416-923-1500

Editor S .

C $ .

C & Editor $ .

ASM Utility $ .

TX Residents $ .

Shipping S ,

(29.95)

(39.95)

(54.95)
. (10.00)

. (6.125% sales tax)
. (see below)

□ PCDOS/MSDOS (2.0 or later) Name.

□ IBM PC Single Side
D IBM PC Double Side

□ Tandy 2000
D 8 Inch

□ Other

Street .
City _

State _

Total $

□ Check □ Money Order
D MC/Visa*

Exp .

Shipping Charges: (No charge for ASM Utility)
USA: $5/Order
Canada: $10/Order
Overseas: *10/Editor • 120/C • $30/C & Editor

□ CPM 80 (2.2 or later)
D 8 Inch
D KayproII

□ Kaypro 4

□ Apple (Z80)

□ Osborne I SD

□ Osborne I DD

□ Morrow MD II

□ Other

Zip .

Country .

Phone

rax

2116 E. Arapaho
Suite 363
Software Richardson, 1X75081

(214) 783-6001
Ask about our volume discounts.

Unix is a trademark of Bell Labs. CPM is a trademark of Digital Research. MSDOS is a trademark of Microsoft. PC DOS isa trademark of IBM. WORDSTAR isa trademark of MicroPro.

304 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 334

CHAOS MANOR

modem. Alex and Barry do that but
I don't know how."

"It's time you learned. Nothing to it.
Do you have Crosstalk?"

Once I admitted that I had Cross-
talk, the rest was automatic. We set up
a new directory on Big Kat's hard disk,
set up a path to Crosstalk, and set
Crosstalk on Answer mode. A minute
later the phone rang. It took a cou-
ple of times— I had to tell all my
assistants, and my kids, not to answer
that line— after which Big Kat an-
swered the phone and proceeded, un-
touched by human hands, to gather
in files for more than an hour. Some
of those files were big. Crosstalk tells
you in advance how large the file will
be and issues progress reports on
how much has been received. It's
totally painless.

Once that was done. I set up the
AUTOEXEC.COM program to bring in
the new programs. As I write this,
Borland has given the project a code
name of Rambo. but, of course, that
isn't how it will be marketed. The real
thing will be called 'TUrbo Lightning
and will include Lightning Libraries.
Lightning is a set of resident utilities;
it installs after SuperKey and before
SideKick. With all three of those util-
ities aboard, Big Kat has 400.784 free
bytes of the 655.360 he started with.
So far I haven't missed the memory—
and, wow. what I get for it!

This crazy program is a writer's
dream. Stuck for a word? Put the cur-
sor next to the word that's not quite
right and hit Alt-7; a list of possibilities
comes up like magic. There's a full
thesaurus in there!

Want to check your spelling? There
are two ways to do that. You can have
on-line spelling checking, in which
case the program beeps at you if you
type a word it doesn't recognize and
on request gives you a list of words
that sound like the one not in its dic-
tionary. You can also put that word in
an update dictionary. The procedure
is a bit onerous if you're doing it one
word at a time; in fact, the on-line
spelling checking is too distracting
when I'm writing. That's all right. You
can turn it off. Then, when you want
to review and rewrite, turn it on. and

check spelling a screen at a time.

The main dictionary is stored with
an extremely sophisticated hashing
code for fast access. The update dic-
tionaries are text files, and you can
add to them with the SideKick editor.
I've updated mine to add all those
special dictionaries I've accumulated
over the years in The Word Plus
(which is still the best off-line spelling
checker I've seen). I understand that
Borland intends to use the TUrbo
Lightning system to access many
other dictionaries and databases;
given the way this one works. I'm very
much looking forward to that.

Given a hard disk and plenty of
memory. Lightning is certainly fast
enough on the Kay pro AT work-alike;
and it runs all right on the Zenith
Z-1 50 with Plus Development's Hard-
card hard disk. I haven't tested it with
a RAM (random-access read/write
memory) disk, but I imagine it would
go like a bomb. I intend to put my
SemiDisk RAM disk into the Kaypro
286i before I start doing any serious
writing with that system; a battery-
backed RAM disk is faster than a hard
disk— and electrons are more reliable
than spinning metal.

There's also a way to use Lightning
with floppies, but that takes a lot more
memory; in essence, you have to load
all the dictionaries into RAM. Better
to get a SemiDisk RAM disk.

Borland has another winner here.
Sure, there are plenty of times when
you don't need or want a spelling
checker and thesaurus; but when you
want them, it's enormously conve-
nient to have them right at hand.

The only real problem with Light-
ning is that this trend toward memory-
resident programs can get out of con-
trol. Now I have three of the darned
things installed on start-up. Where will
it end? One of the first things Borland
ought to add to the Lightning package
is a SuperKey macro that will kill off
Lightning, then ask if you want Side-
Kick and SuperKey. Getting Lightning
out from in between SideKick and
SuperKey is messy, and I expect there
will be times when I want all that
memory back.

{continued)

Number One
In Performance

Hard Disk
Intelligent

VCR Backup

for AT/XT/PC

FEATURES

• High speed microprocessor
controlled backup (68000)

• Two channel interface

• Built in LAN channel

• Software control of most VCR
functions including Fast Forward,
Rewind, and auto backup using VCR
timer capabilities

• Economical VHS or Beta formats

Systems

West: 4704 W. Jennifer. Suite 105, Fresno. CA 93711. 209/276-2345
East:67Grandview, Pleasantville, NY 10570. 914/747-1450
Distributor: Telemarketing Services. Inc.
1897Garden Ave., Eugene. OR 97403. 503/345-7395

FEBRUARY 1986 • B Y T E 305

w k 1 1| k 1 ri

WTTrnj

,(t)'£M

nul>3 E

i ■ ■ * j ^ ^

I* 7

TTTTi?

fTT73Tni

1 I ^J Im 1

%J 1 I* f ^«

H

■

■

All too often, brand-name CPUs are "bundled"
with mediocre peripherals— a practice that makes
for profitable sales, but does nothing for the
system's performance.

In Japan, where most computer peripherals are
actually built, NEC is the largest personal computer
company— by far. And NEC didn't make it to first
place by offering second rate peripherals.

The monitors with
the broadcast video heritage.

While dozens of companies market display
monitors, only a handful possess the tube
technology and manufacturing capability to actually
build them. NEC is one of the few. In fact, NEC's
complete line of color and monochrome monitors
reflects the professional and broadcast video

expertise that twice earned NEC Emmy Awards
from the National Academy of Television Arts &
Sciences.

Winning the printer race
takes both speed and endurance.

Ask people who really know about printers, and
they'll tell you that NEC builds the best. They may
also point out that NEC builds printers for other
computer companies. And if you ask them to
choose one word to sum up what makes NEC
printers stand out, it will probably be "reliable." This
is why NEC has become the printer of choice for the
most demanding installations.

So before you buy a peripheral from any name
company make sure the company puts more into
the peripheral than just its name.

PC-PR105A IBM PC PLUG COMPATIBLE
TRI-MODE DOT MATRIX PRINTER.

..r.-TiX-'

vtcipcfRiosn

SEC

NEC Home Electronics (U.S.A.) Inc.

Personal Computer Division

1401 Estes Avenue

Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

1-800-477-4700

JB-1280D/0
GREEN PHOSF

^oj^ Computers and Communications

Inquiry 335

CHAOS MANOR

In the long run, this can't be a prob-
lem. The next step in hardware will ef-
fectively remove memory limits: stan-
dard systems will have megabytes of
memory. As operating systems im-
prove, the capabilities given us by
SuperKey Lightning, and SideKick will
be built into the operating system. Un-
til then, Borland programs increase
my productivity something wonderful.

Goodies

Once again I'm running low on space,
and my desk is covered with a moun-
tain of good stuff that ought to be
mentioned. Nothing for it: it's short-
shrift time again at Chaos Manor.

One good idea is r IlirboLink, which
is a program that— well, let me quote
from the manual: "TlirboLink is an
automated way to load Turbo Pascal
program files into user memory, make
them stay resident in memory, and
call these programs from a central
program which is resident in memory
at the same time. This central program
can be written in BASIC, BASICA,
Compiled BASIC, or 'Ilirbo Pascal.
TlirboLink provides an automatic in-
telligent interface between the pro-
grams. . . . TlirboLink eliminates your
program size limitations by helping
you create a system of programs (up
to 576K bytes in length) that execute
as a single program. You can ac-
complish this by calling up to eight
64K-byte resident modules. . ." The
rest of the manual is written in similar-
ly concise and clear English. Ilirbo
Pascal hackers will like this program.

Complete Turbo Pascal by Jeff Dunte-
mann (Scott, Foresman, 1985) is the
best introduction to TUrbo I have ever
seen. This book and the Borland
Ilirbo compiler will get you started
writing programs even if you've never
programmed before. It is well written
and extremely well edited. The ex-
amples are good, the book is thick,
and the writing is clear and explicit.
I would have been proud to have writ-
ten this book.

Not quite as good, but plenty
worthy of recommendation, is the
CP/M Programmer's Encyclopedia by Bruce
Brigham (Que, 1 984). This gives by ex-
ample nearly everything you can do

with CP/M. Not quite everything; it
shows no example of how to transfer
a file from, say, user area 3 disk B to
user area I disk M while you are
logged on to user area disk A. But
you have to get down to that level
before it's deficient. There are sec-
tions on PIP, STAT, RMAC, DDT, SID,
LINK, SUBMIT, and XSUB and then
chapters on Pascal MT+. dBASE II,
Microsoft BASIC, CBASIC, and other
stuff. Appendixes cover file-control
blocks and other esoterica. Highly
recommended for anyone with a
CP/M system.

UN lock 4.7 defeats the latest Prolok
and SuperLock type of copy-
protection scheme. It's menu-driven
and works fine on the programs it's
supposed to work on: Lotus 1-2-3,
dBASE III, Framework. Symphony,
Paradox, and several others. I'll use it
to put dBASE III and Framework on
Big Kat's hard disk to try them out
Real Soon Now. There are also public-
domain copy-protection removers, not
so well documented, available from
bulletin boards or from Workman and
Associates.

Meanwhile, apparently the cam-
paign against copy protection is pay-
ing off. Living Videotext has just
about abandoned copy protection, In-
focom has quietly given it up, and
other companies are following suit. It
can't happen soon enough for me. I
agree that piracy is a real problem,
and I'm certainly on the side . of
authors and their publishers getting
paid a fair price for their work; but
copy protection is not the way to go.
It's too easy to break, and its major
effect is inconvenience to honest
users.

Speaking of Living Videotext, I have
a copy of Ready!, which is a new out-
line processor and editor. Unlike
Thinkfenk, which I've already recom-
mended, Ready! is a memory-resident
program like SideKick. I've only just
gotten it. Ready! works fine on the
Zenith Z-l 50 and the Big Kat with or
without SideKick and SuperKey. You
install it at boot time and after that
press Control-5 to invoke it (as you
press Control-Alt to invoke SideKick).

[continued]

i

Number One
in Performance

Z80H

IBM/AT/XT/PC- 8mz
No Wait States

FEATURES

• 64K-256K RAM

• 2K-8KEPR0M/StaticRam

• 2 Serial Ports
Async/Sync/Bisync Communications

• Real Time Clock

• Memory-mapped Dual-port BUS

• On-board /Remote Reset NMi capability

• UpTo32BoardsPerAT/XT/PC

• Can Operate As Standalone Processor

• Less Than Full Size Board
(will fit other compatables.)

SOFTWARE

• ZP/M tm CP/M Emulation Software
(Supports Most CP/M Software)

• Multiuser Capability If Used As A
Slave Processor

TLMSvstems

West:4704 W. Jennifer. Suite 105.Fresno. CA 9371 1. 209/276-2345
East: 67 Grandview. Pleasantville. NY 10570. 914/747-1450
Distributor: Telemarketing Services. Inc.
1897 Garden Ave.. Eugene, OR 97403. 503/345 7395

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 307

Contact us for other tow prices on hardware and software,
Next Day Air Extra, Call for latest prices.

FREE SHIPPING

in the Continental United States

NO SURCHARGE FOR BORS

20 MEG Hard Disk System
for PC

# x

Half Height

Internal $469
External $619

20 and 30 MEG High Speed
40 MS Hard Disks for AT

20 MEG $579
30 MEG $699

Includes Seagate Full Height Hard Disk, Cables, Manual, and Mounting Rails.
Boots from Hard Disk. One Year Warranty. *

SOLVE YOUR POWER PROBLEM.

XT POWER 135 W

Includes Seagate Hard Disk, Western Digital Controller, Cables,
Manual, Software, and Mounting Hardware.
Boots From Hard Disk One Year Warranty *

$89

25 or more $75 each

Directly replaces power supply in PC. 11 '
Fully XT™ compatible. One Year Warranty *

Call us for competitive prices on larger quantities of RAM chips.

64K RAM

Set Of 9 Chl|IS # 200 or 150 Nanoseconds

$8

per sei

256KRAM $ 2 9 128Kram ,,

Selof9chips nnnxant I Set $39

300/1200 Baud Hayes Compatible Modem
Fits in Short Slot

<omm,

$159

PC's Limited Six Function Card

PC's Limited AT Multifunction Card

• Upgradable to 384K

• Clock/Calendar

• Includes Software

• Parallel Port

• Serial Port

• Game Port

Two Year Warranty *

• Expandable To 3 Meg (1.5 on Board/ 1.5 on Piggy Back

• Supports 64 or 256K Rams

• Parallel Port

• Serial Port (2nd Serial Optional)

w/384K $129

$199

w/OK

Piggy Back Board 159 w/OK

PC's Limited PC-576 RAM Board W/OK

PC's Limited Floppy Controller Card

• Expandable to 576K

• Supports 64K or 256K RAMS

• Fits in Short Slot

$69

Jj0> : #r;

• Supports Up To Four Drives

$49

308 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 254

PRICES AND MACHINES THAT
OUTRUN THE COMPETITION.

PC'S LIMITED n ™

High Performance
Competitive Price

PC'S LIMITED AT

High Performance Competitive Price

//

$795

■111

^>

/7

Includes: System Unit, 640K on Mother Board,
360K Floppy Drive, Keyboard, I35W Power Supply.

bu si MU(or Mtrcn vrfttM for Hm IBMfC «d K/Xr, 40% fattar, vHWmI »o4ffNofW«i.
(Nuiim) 16-Ut 8088-2, 4.77w 6.66HHZ 0«fc Spttd. (tipwulw Stoti) s8; 7 an aniktt* la obeva t<

$1995

Includes: 80286-based System Unit, 1024K on
Mother Board, 1.2 Meg.Floppy Drive, Combined Floppy
and Hard Disk Controller Card, AT Keyboard, 192W
Power Supply, 2 Serials and 1 Parallel Port, and
Clock/Calendar with Battery Backup, all on Mother
Board.

■vu oil Mo|«rS«tfw* trrittoi
(Expand* Mori) :8. 7 art

for Hm IBM PC, K XT-, Mid K AT*. (tottuw ) fofol 80386 rvui»9 at 6MHZ.

in ab«v« <o*fl9*ratfon. Sanw Bm UnfigtnvHM « '■** K AT". ( 8MHZ optional)

Floppy Disk Drive JUiC

55-B, Half -Height, DS/DD

MITSUBISHI

(Japan's Best)
Half Height, DS/DD

PCs Limited Monochrome Graphics
Fully Hercules Compatible

• Text Mode 80 X 25

• Graphics Mode 720 X 348 Pixels

• One Parallel Printer Port

Irwin Tape Backup System

tape not included

► Uses Floppy Controller Card • Half Height

• 10.35 Meg Formatted Capacity ■ Low Power

• Used in Compaq Deskpro.

PC's Limited Mini I/O

• Serial Port

• Parallel Port

• Clock

• Software

• Fits In Short Slot

PC's Limited Universal
— Video Adapter

■v~-

\

_\,

$259

• Replaces numerous cards, including IBM,
Hercules, Plantronics.

• Provides 132 column text— color or mono

• Supports all parallel printers and plotters

• Emulates color software on monochrome
monitor in 16 shades

Tcreu:Doc tooor lowpriccs iod usunocetbal
all mere baadlic U ocw . unused p rod net , ill sal es
arc flul. Call technical support (or return
mthorimloa osobtr 01 all warranty repairs.
Aaj nnauthorutd rtwro subject id a 10%
rcsaxiiogi ec Prepaid checks, moocjrordm,
VJSA, MutttOfd, American Eiprws, or ap
prorrd company purchascordcrs arc accepted.
Prices re Ikrt iX nsb. VISA iod Ma serfCird Ah
conn t American Ei p resi no) subject to dbcoun J.

Compaq. UAC. IBM. Irwin. Intel, and
Miuubrib arc trademark* of ihcir respective
companies. All brand names arc re|i«lrrcd
trademarks.

orsjinltalion.

PC'S LIMITED

SALES-RELATED CALLS OUTSIDE TEXAS, 1-800-426-5150

161 1 Headway Circle, Building 3, Austin, Texas 78754

Sales Calls from anywhere in country, (512) 339-6962

Technical Support Calls, (512) 339-6963 Customer Service Calls, (512) 339-6964

Telex No. 9103808386 PC LTD

* Limited Warranty

Some quantities ma)' be limited.
PC's Limited reserves the right to
substitute equivalent items. All
prices are subject to change
without notice.

Ad Number 402/86

Inquiry 2 54

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 309

CHAOS MANOR

Ready! can also be put up in ex-
tended memory (above the 640K-byte
barrier), although that slows things
down a bit.

Ready! works like Thinktenk, only
better, and it's easier to get at. If you
write very much on a PCompatible,
you'll probably want it.

As I was finishing that last para-
graph, the phone rang: Pierreluigi
Zappacosta of Logitech called to tell
me I'd been right. That is: about a

year ago I tried to persuade PLZ (as
he's usually known) to drop the price
of Logitech's PCompatible Modula-2
compiler. "Get a lot of them out there.
Get people interested in Modula-2,"
I said. "How can we build interest in
the language until there's a good low-
cost Modula-2 compiler?"

It took a year, but they're doing that.
The new and improved version of the
Logitech Modula-2 compiler now sells
for $89: for similar amounts, you can

buy incremental improvement pack-
ages. This isn't a watered-down or
crippled version of Logitech's
Modula-2 compiler: it's a genuine im-
provement that runs faster, does
more, and costs less.

That's not all. Workman and Associ-
ates has a new $49.95 Z80 Modula-2
compiler written by Dave Moore of
Australia. It has an integrated editor,
and it's fast and complete. If you like

[continued)

Items Discussed

The Ancient Art of War

for IBM PC and PCjr $44.95

Mountain View. CA 94043
(415) 964-2115

Ready! for IBM PC

. .$99.95

ThinkTank for IBM PC . . .

$195

Br0derbund Software

THINKTANK 512

17 Paul Dr.

Little Board starts at $289

for 512K-byte Macintosh

....$245

San Rafael. CA 94903

Ampro Computers Inc.

Living Videotext Inc.

(415) 479-1170

67 East Evelyn Ave.
Mountain View. CA 94041

2432 Charleston Rd.
Mountain View. CA 94043

Buildings for Mac $49.95

(415) 962-0230

(415) 964-6300

Interiors for Mac $49.95

MITE starts at $150

Stride 440 starts at $2995

Masterpieces- for Mac $39.95

Hayden Software

Mycroft Laboratories

Stride Micro

650 Suffolk St.

2615 North Monroe St.

POB 30016

Lowell. MA 01854

'tellahassee. FL 32303

Reno, NV 89520-0016

(617) 937-0200

(904) 385-1141

(702) 322-6868

Crosstalk $195

Microstuf Inc.

Modula-2 for IBM PC

Logitech Inc.

. . $89

TIjrbo Lightning

. . $99.95

Borland International

1000 Holcomb Woods Parkway

805 Veterans Blvd.

4 585 Scotts Valley Dr.

Suite 440

Redwood City. CA 94063

Scotts Valley. CA 95066

Roswell. GA 30076

(415) 365-9852

(408) 438-8400

(404) 998-3998

MPI Printers start at $895

UirboLink Price unavailable

Crush. Crumble

Micro Peripherals Inc.

Pathfinder Software

and Chomp! $39.95

4415 South 500 West

POB 43

Epyx Games

Salt Lake City. UT 84123

Littleton, CO 80160

1043 Kiel Court

(801) 263-6000

Sunnyvale. CA 94089

UNLOCK for IBM PC

. . .$49.95

(408) 745-0700

OmniTel Internal Modem . .

. $399

Transec Systems Inc.

Omnflfel

1802-200 North University

Dr.

Kaypro 286i starts at $2995

Kaypro Corporation
53 3 Stevens Ave.
Solana Beach. CA 92075
(619) 481-4300

3090 Oakmead Village Dr.
Santa Clara, CA 95051
(408) 986-8236

Quick BASIC

Microsoft

..$99

Plantation. FL 33324
(305) 474-7548

WordStar

except PCjr

$350

for PCjr

.. . .$195

10700 Northup Way

MicroPro International

Laser BDS 630/8 $2995

POB 97200

33 San Pablo Ave.

BDS Corporation

Bellevue. WA 98009

San Rafael, CA 94903

800 Maude Ave.

(800) 426-9400

(415) 499-1200

310 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

I foresee a future for Living C up there
with TUrbo Pascal and the other
software bargains of our time. ■

BYTE • NOVEMBER I985v

"An absolute delight to use... the product is
overwhelmingly impressive — probably the most
impressive systems software product I have seen this
year... Living Software appears not to have missed
a trick . . . stuffed full of good ideas all of which are
smoothly implemented!' RC. WEEK Nov 1985

On your screen now-
4 action packed features.

STARRING THE FULL C STANDARD
DEFINED BY KERNIGHAN + RITCHIE

1

2

3
4

ANIMATING C INTERPRETER Watch with
excitement the thrills of the animating C interpreter as
your C source code is executed instantly on screen! Total
control over the code you wish to examine makes under-
standing applications or prototypes easy - and the power
of animation will astound you!

FULL SCREEN EDITOR Marvel at the true full function
commercial editor which is fully menu driven with help
facilities on call. Fully integrated, it can be used at all times
throughout the design, development, maintenance and
debugging of your C application!

WINDOWS Experience pure joyasyou monitor in
separate windows the variables and I/O of your application
when animating - even when you are 'zooming' to your
next breakpoint!

FULL C SOURCE DEBUG Debug all bugs with Living
C's visual fault finding facility! You'll fall in love with the
comprehensive error diagnostics and useful hints to solve
your problems. Using the fully integrated Living C editor; you
can make any corrections Immediately (or from the separate
error file systematically) as the cursor locates the problem.

nquiry 390

It's the blockbuster of the year thatcan maximise your creativity
and productivity! And to run your final application, simply use Living C
as an interpreter or recompile into your favourite C compiler.

Rated for all IBMPCs.XT's,
AT's and compatibles under PC- DOS
and MS-DOS + Apricots under
MS-DOS.

System Requirements: Living C
requires 192K of RAM and either
twin disc drives or one disc drive
+ hard disc.

| LIVING SOFTWARE ]

250 North Orange Avenue, Suite 820 Orlando, Florida 32801.

Yes, I'd like to see the blockbusting 4 feature Living C package.

Please send @ $99 per package, + $10 shipping.

Apricot □ or IBM □ (compatibles).

I enclose cheque/money order value $ made payable

to Living Software.

Telephone hotline for Mastercard/ Visa cardholders:
1800826 261 2 (toll free).

NAME:

DELIVERY ADDRESS:

CITY:_

STATE:

TELEPHONE No:

_ZIP:.

Living Software guarantee your money back if not
< completely satisfied.

Inquiry 375

Factory Direct Sales

The Biggest Manufacturer &
Distributor in Taiwan RO.C.

PC/XT-640K IBM Compatible
Enhanced System:

Including: 640K Memory. Multi-I/O 5-Pack. Two 360K
Drives. 5150 Keyboard. Fully Compatible Runs All IBM™
Software, 1 year Limited Factoiy Warranty.

SPECIAL $799

ADD-ON Optional Features:

• 20 MGB Internal Hard Disk

with Tons of Software $649

• 1 2" High Resolution Green or

Amber Screen TTL Monitor $109

• 1 2" Green or Amber Compositive Monitor $ 99

• For Best Price in Color Monitors TAXAN $CALL

• 10 MGB Internal Hard Disk

with W.D. Controller $499

PC/AT Fully Compatible:
Mother Board

More Features-Lower Price $CALL

IBM M XT, AT ADD-ON Serials

• XT-Flip Top Case $ 55

• PC/AT Case $115

• Key Board-51 50 $ 75

• Key Board-51 51 $105

• AT-Key Board $105

• Color Graphic Adapter $ 95

• Monochrome/Printer Port/Graphics $119

• 384K Multi 1 RS-232. 1 Parallel Game. Clock. . . $135

• Floppy/Controller with Cable $ 49

• Floppy/2 Controller with Cable $ 44

• I/O Plus II Multi-function Adapter, 5 Packs . . , $ 99

• Parallel Printer Card $ 39

• Game Card, for Two Joy-Stick $ 29

• Dual RS-232 Serial Card (1 Optional) $ 44

• Joy-stick (for IBM) w/Auto Trimer $ 21

• Local Areal Net-Work System, for PC/XT. AT.

1 MG Bit Per Second up to 255 Users . . . $CALL

• Modem Smart II Hayes Compatible

300/1 200B $249

• Memoiy Chips: 4 1 64-1 50ns. 64K $ 9.90

41 256-1 50ns.256K $29.90

JVEIV-256K/640K IBM-XT
Compatible Mother Board

• CPU: 8088 4.77 MHz • Memory 64K-640Kon
Board • 8 IBM Compatible Expension I/O Slots •
Same Size as PC/XT • Runs All IBM'" Software.

Special $180
JVEIV — XT/Turbo Mother Board

• CPU 8088-2 or NEC V-20 (4 Layers PCB)

• Dual Clock 4.77 MHz Or 8 MHz (Switchable)
Build-in Features:

• 4 Floppy Controllers / 2 Serial Ports / 1 Parallel
Printer Port / Real Time Clock with Battery on Board
640K Byte Ram Socket (Optional) (1 MB)

• AT-2MB 3.5 MB Multi-function Add-on Card
(4 Layers PCB)

2 Serial Poil / 1 Parallel Port / 1 Game Port $289

• AT-2 MB 3.5 MB Memory Expension

Add-on Card (4 Layers PCB) $199

• AT-Multi I/O Plus Add-on Card

2 Serial Port ./ 1 Parallel Port / 1 Game Port $119

• AT HD/FDC Controllers (W.D.) $349

• AT 1 .2 M Floppy Drive Half Height $159

• AT 20 MB Hard Disk 65m/s. $CALL

• AT/XT. 360K Floppy Drive $ 99

TERMS:

1. CA Residents add 6.5% Sales Tax.

2. Free Shipping for prepaid orders inside Continental U.S.A

3. Add 5% for handling plus shipping.

4. COD adds additional $5, Cashier's Check only.

5. Personal Check allow 2 weeks to clear.

ALL ITMES 1 YEAR FACTORY WARRANTY

• OEM Dealers Welcome

• Please Call for Our Special
Dealer Price

Order Hot Line: (818) 573-1515

HORN COMPUTER INT L INC.

(Manufacturer & Distributor)

513 S. Atlantic Blvd.. Suite Box 800

Monterey Park. CA91754

TEL: (818) 573-1 51 5. TLX: 3716858 HORNRICH UB

(IBM is a irademarkof International Business Machines Corp.)
312 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

CHAOS MANOR

llirbo Pascal, you're almost certain to
love this.

Stride

The Stride (I almost said Sage) 440 is
here. We set it up, plugged in the
cables, and turned it on. It comes up
in p-code. Dr. Michael Hyson, who
uses Apple He p-code to do advanced
robotics work at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratories, tried it out. "Fast," he
cried. "Really fast."

I have Scenic's native-code Modula-2
compiler for the Stride. This is the
compiler developed at Volition Sys-
tems before internal stresses tore that
group of brilliant hackers into warring
factions. The Scenic Modula-2 com-
piler works splendidly on the Stride,
and the combination is staggeringly
fast with terrific graphics.

I also have Metacomco's 68000 LISP
and Robinson Systems' MOSYS (the
Modula-2 operating system). Alas,
they're not compatible. I have seen all
these marvels working on Stride ma-
chines, but we've barely got them go-
ing here. What slows us down is p-Sys-
tem. The Stride comes up in p-Sys-
tem, and I find it the original user-
hostile operating system. One day I'll
get Alex and Mike Hyson to generate
a cookbook that will set up MOSYS
once and for all and another to get
LISP up and running. Then I'll have
lots of fun with my Stride.

In fairness, let me point out that
many people use Stride machines in
business applications, and lots more
use them to hack 68000 programs.
Carl Helmers, the founding editor of
BYTE, likes it so well he has a per-
sonalized license plate that reads P-
CODE. I've seen amazing things done
with Stride machines, and I have no
doubt that it won't be long before
they're happening here. I'm particular-
ly anxious to compare the new Logi-
tech Modula- 2 compiler running on
the Kaypro AT with the Scenic/Volition
Modula-2 compiler running on the
Stride.

Winding Down

I'm out of space, and the stack on my
desk is no lower. Sigh. The game of
the month is Br0derbund's The An-

cient Art of War, which the boys say
(and I confirm from my own experi-
ence) is about the best strategic com-
puter war game they've encountered.
It has a number of different scenarios
and levels of opponents, ranging from
Crazy Ivan, who acts unpredictably
through Julius Caesar, who is darned
hard to beat, to Sun-tzu, who does
everything right and makes you work
just to avoid humiliation. Highly
recommended.

Another set of "games" is Hayden
Software's series of goodies for the
Macintosh. These include Interiors
and Masterpieces, which make puz-
zles of art, and Buildings, which lets
you more or less design cities. All in-
structional and amusing at the same
time.

While in Seattle for their computer
fair, I went over to Microsoft. They
have some of the best debugging
tools I have ever seen, and they'll
soon be available to hackers. Watch
for them. From COBOL and FOR-
TRAN to assembly language, these
are tools to drool over.

They also have Quick BASIC, a new
version of the BASCOM BASIC com-
piler. The price is significantly re-
duced, they've removed most of the
known BASCOM bugs, and they've
added multiline functions. There are
still a few anomalies, and for some
reason it won't run on the l&ndy 2000
(the old BASCOM would); but Bruce
Tonkin, who really knows Microsoft
BASIC, is enormously pleased with it,
although he also notes that it is "ag-
gressively compatible with TopView."

Coming up this weekend is a party
that started with a few friends from
BIX; others heard, and people are
coming from New Hampshire and
Seattle. The party now threatens to
level the Hollywood hills. Just hope
the San Andreas holds off. ■

]erry Pournelle welcomes readers comments
and opinions. Send a self-addressed, stamped
envelope to ]erry Pournelle, do BYTE Publica-
tions. POB 372, Hancock. NH 03449.
Please put your address on the letter as well
as on the envelope. Due to the high volume
of letters. )erry cannot guarantee a personal
reply.

DOES YOUR
HI-RES GRAPHICS

BOARD SHOW
YOU ONLY PART

OF A SPREADS HEI

When it comes to printing out
spreadsheets, most IBM* compatible
graphics boards come up short.

But not the Genoa Spectrum™
Color/Mono/Graphics Board.

what you're doing. On the screen.
And on paper.

But the best part is, you don't
have to pay more to do it. Here's why:

Up until now, if you wanted

Ttw Spectrum Color lOraphics Board is the most compatible board you can buy. Wliich means it rum Die most
software. Including Flight Simulator™ Lotus* 1-2-3™ Symphony!" SideKick? PC Paint!* and muck much more.

It goes all the way to 132 columns.
The largest text display of any
graphics board you can buy. There's
even a special driver that'll show
you 132 columns of Lotus, which
normally only has 80.

And together with your 132-
column printer; the Spectrum can
also print every one of those 132
columns. So you can see more of

Soectrum is a trademark of Genoa Systems Corporation. # 1985 Genoa Systems Corporation.
Inquiry 145

both graphics and color; you had to
buy two boards. One for hi-res
mono graphics, one for color:

But the Genoa Spectrum puts
color and graphics on the same
board. So you save yourself a slot.
And about $250.

You can also save yourself the
price of a color monitor Because
Spectrum will emulate your color

software in monochrome. And for

your monochrome software there's

a720x348 hi-res mode.
So either way, you're covered.

Spectrum is compatible with all
color and monochrome monitors.
So you'll always get 16 beauti-
ful colors in color: Or 16 shades
of monochrome in mono.

For all the technical specs
or the Genoa Spectrum dealer
nearest you, just call us at

408-945-9720. Or write Genoa

Systems Corporation, 73 E. Trimble

Road, San Jose, CA 95131.
The Genoa Spectrum. It's the

only board you'll ever need for color;

graphics, and full size output.
Anything else is either too much

money or incomple

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 313

CHAOS MANOR MAIL

How Did Jerry Do?

Dear Jerry.

In "The Debate Goes On. . ." (August
1983, page 312), you made some predic-
tions about what would happen in two
years. Well, it is now more than two years
later. I think that your readers would be
interested in seeing what you think about
how your two-year-old predictions panned
out.

Apparently C is a lot bigger than you
thought it would be, particularly in com-
mercial software development: You could
not have foreseen TUrbo Pascal, which has
made Pascal extremely popular among
hobbyists. As far as I can tell. PL/I has vir-
tually no following. The software house I
work for uses PL/I. but I don't know any-
body else who does.

Of course, interpreted BASIC comes with
most microcomputers, so it remains
popular, although I agree with your
opinion of it. Your article of two years
ago seems oriented toward the CP/M
world, but the MS-DOS world is much big-
ger now. Also, your prediction that "within
two years, one will be able to buy the
equivalent of a VAX ... for $6000 or
so" was a little optimistic. You can get
a Micro-VAX, but it costs $20,000 to
$30,000. You were right about the amount
of RAM people would use; 512K-byte
Macs and 640K-byte PCs are now
common.

William Meacham
Austin. TX

I was definitely wrong about C; on the
other hand, there is now Logitech's
Modula-2 for less than a hundred dollars,
and although I didn't foresee Turbo
Pascal, I did say that one day soon there
would be a low-cost Pascal. Indeed, Leor
Zolman's BDS C probably had much to
do with the interest in C among hobby-
ists.

Mostly, neither I nor anyone else fore-
saw just how fast this computer revolu-
tion would take off. There are more
hobbyists now than when I wrote that
column— but the hobbyists no longer
dominate the market.

As the machines and languages get
better, the difference between "profes-
sional" and "amateur" programmers will

be about the same as it is between pro-
fessional and amateur writers— Jerry

Know Your Dealer

Dear Jerry.

I'd like to take a few minutes to pass on
to your readers a small tale of woe about
a printer, a computer, and a very large
headache.

In October 1983. 1 made the tumultuous
decision to buy my first (and so far. last)
home computer. This decision was pre-
cipitated by a number of things, not the
least of which was my wife's being bored
by hearing what 'the absolute best" com-
puter to buy was— today— day after day.

It wasn't as though I was utterly naive
about computers; heck, I've been in data
processing for 12 years now. The question
was: How far can I stretch an already over-
shrunk dollar? How do I get the best for
the least?

I made the decision to buy an Apple-
like computer. The Apple 11+ was still be-
ing sold at the time, and the Apple lie was
untried and mostly unsold. Apple was ask-
ing too much money for an Apple 11 + . so
I bought the compatible.

I was happy with my decision— in fact,
I still am. The problem wasn't with the
computer, as I found out many months
later; it was with . . . well, that's coming.

I ordered a printer— a C.ltoh Model
8510— and a standard printer interface via
mail order.

After a while, the printer finally arrived.
I hooked everything up, and all did not
work well. The printer kept dropping char-
acters. It would print for several seconds,
then take itself into deselect mode. When
I reselected it. it would drop a character.
The deselecting of the printer was its way
of telling me that something was wrong.

I took the printer to a local dealer. It
would not. no matter how many times we
tried to force it, fail. It just kept printing
maniacally and, unfortunately, quite
normally.

I took it back home. It would not print
without dropping characters.

Suspecting the interface card. I took it
and the printer to the dealer. Same story
as before: It wouldn't fail. Page after page
of perfect print. Took it home: It wouldn't
work.

.Now I was beginning to suspect the
computer itself. I had been testing at the
dealer's with an Apple lie. My computer
is a U nitron 2200. 1 took the interface card
and printer to the dealer and insisted that
it be tested on another U nitron. It would
not fail. I took my printer and card home:
It wouldn't work.

I took my computer, interface card, and
printer into the dealer's. Again, the printer
would not fail. Brought them home: The
printer kept dropping characters. It was
then that I discovered what the dealer
never suspected: the interface cable.

At home, the interface cable went across
both disk-drive cables, two power cables,
and a joystick cable. Naturally, this situa-
tion never occurred at the dealer's. By
simply moving the printer to the other
side of the computer and rerouting the
cable so it was near no other cables, the
electromagnetic interference that was dis-
rupting the printer vanished. Now it won't
fail. Hallelujah!

I'm not sure whatthe moral of this story
is. but perhaps it can serve to warn your
readers of two things. One. the most like-
ly solution is the simplest one. Two,
nothing is as simple as it looks. This prob-
lem took months to solve because of the
dealer's lack of insight.

I would offer this caveat: Select your
dealer with the same care with which you
would select your spouse. You need
straight answers from both of them, and
you will likely spend as much time with
the one as the other.

Wallace Williams
APO, New York

A fascinating story. Murphy's law at
work.

We've had similar problems, particular-
ly with an early serial number TRS-80
Model I Level II with expansion box;
eventually, the expansion box and cables
had to be shielded in aluminum foil.
Newer machines are of course shielded
due to FCC regulations, but cables are
still a very vulnerable spot.

As to dealers: Pournelle's law still ap-
plies: "If you don't know what you're do-
ing, be sure to deal only with people who
do."

Thanks.— jerry ■

« — Inquiry 218

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 315

King of Computerized

Typesetting
ICRO

TeX

Eh

MicmTj;X enables writers and publishers to typeset techni-
cal documents — articles, reports, proposals, books —
with the speed and efficiency of a microcomputer system. Its
state-of-the art technology produces high quality, professional
typesetting. You will find it especially suitable for documents
containing extensive mathematics.

e is a sample of actual MicroTj;X output:

S-'TS = dg(uM, ,.,*„) = A

00 1

k

21! k

v b h), \ll + \fl+ v 1 + i,

Az

Capabilities

MicroT[:X's many capabilities give you complete control over how
you want your document to look. Justification, hyphenation, and
pagination. Kerning and ligature of characters. Automatic place-
ment of footnotes. Widow control. Automatic insertion of run-
ning heads. Easy use of special symbols (such as diacritical
marks, foreign characters) or other typefaces. And user-
defined macros that do such things as automatically num-
ber footnotes or sections.

Of course, MicroT|,\\ files can be printed on dot matrix
printers, laser printers and phototypesetters, including
the Epson and IBM dot matrix printers. QMS and Imagen
laser printers, the Apple LaserWriter and other Postscript
machines, and the APS5 phototypesetter.

System Requirements

MicroT F X is available for the IBM PC. XT and AT and
compatibles, MS-DOS and 512k RAM required. A hard
disk is recommended.

Printer drivers, a screen preview er and the lAl^X and
4MS-T|,\\ macro packages are also available.

Wmsn&'

MicroTpX costs S295. Site licenses, network

Addison-Wesley publishes several books related to Tj;X,
including the forthcoming five volume Computers and
Typesetting, by Donald E. Knuth, Stanford University:
The T|,;Xbook, Tj;X the Program, The Metafont Book,
Metafont the Program, and Computer Modern
Typefaces.

licenses, and volume discounts are available for
MicroTFX and all Educational Media Systems
Division products. Call or write for futher information:

^▼Addison-Wesley

Educational Media Systems

Reading, Massachusetts 01867

(617) 944-3700 ext. 2677

▼▼^

Tj.;X is a trademark of the American Mathematical Society. Micro T|.\\ is a trademark of Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. IHM. IBM PC. XT and AT are registered trademarks
of International Business Machines Corporation. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Postscript is a trademark of Adobe Systems. Apple is a trademark
of Apple Computer. Inc.

316 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986 Inquiry 6

BYTE JAPAN

Highlights of Two Shows

T-Maker III

iBASE plus

Kan-tamu

TEC BP-IO

Facit Opus

Casio LCS-2400

Sanyo SPX-800

Sanyo CLL-2000D

Sanyo MBC-5800

Ampere WS-I

by William M. Raike

William M. Raike, who has a Ph.D.
in applied mathematics from North-
western University, has taught opera-
tions research and computer science
in Austin. Texas, and Monterey.
California. He holds a patent on a
voice scrambler and was formerly an
officer of Cryptext Corporation in
the U.S. \n 1980. he went to japan
looking for 64K~bit RAMs. He has
been there ever since as a technical
translator and a software developer.
He can be contacted do BYTE.
POB 372. Hancock. NH 03449.

Back in October 1985 there were
three computer shows in a 10-day
period, which left me little time for
other things. First I attended the 1985 Soft-
ware Show, followed by the 1985 Data
Show. I just didn't have time to get to the
Optical Memory Technology Conference,
held at the same time as the Software Show.

Software Show

The Software Show turned out to be disap-
pointing. For one thing, it's very hard to
show off new software products effectively
at an exhibition booth where hundreds of
other booths are competing for attention.
It's also more difficult to attract attention
quickly and visually to a software product
than, say, a new computer or peripheral. In
any case, the show was dominated by
CAD/CAM software packages, not terribly
impressive, and not really one of my main
interests. I saw no particularly noteworthy
new products in areas like integrated soft-
ware packages, word processors, program-
ming languages, or general-purpose utilities.
AT&T was very much in evidence, pushing
the UNIX system, which it hopes will
become a standard operating system in
Japan. Although a Japanese-language adap-
tation of UNIX ought to eliminate many of
the problems associated with other im-
ported operating systems for minicom-
puters and mainframes, this was not effec-
tively emphasized at the AT&T booth. The
people in the booth spoke a curious mix
of languages. The temporary exhibition staff
recited short speeches by rote (in Japanese),
but the centerpiece consisted of a video
presentation by, among others, Brian Ker-
nighan (the main creative force behind
UNIX) in English, which was unintelligible
to most people at the show. In fact the talk
was a rather impractical and dull discussion
of some UNIX programming tools. Micro-
soft and ASCII Corporation, its Japanese af-
filiate, have done much better at earlier
shows with their presentations of kanji
XENIX. Unfortunately for me, that system

is available here only on the new
80286-based NEC PC-98XA. Fujitsu was
supposed to have released the 80286 pro-
cessor card for its FM-16/3 machine (which
I use) by now, but it's been delayed, so I still
don't have a UNIX system. Things are not
always perfect. . .

Even though they're not really new, hav-
ing appeared at earlier computer shows, it's
worthwhile to mention two popular Japa-
nese-language software packages that were
exhibited in a clear, understandable way.
One is T-Maker III, an integrated Japanese-
language word-processing, graphics, and
database-management program from the
JSE International group of software com-
panies (the same company that converted
dBASE II to enable it to handle Japanese-
language text). The second program is a
database manager and application-program
generator called iBASE plus, from the
Ample Software Co. Ltd. It sells for only
about $220 and is an easy-to-use, menu-
driven system that lets you enter
Japanese-language text in a way that's
similar to various word-processing pro-
grams.

One new telecommunications program at-
tracted my attention. Kan-tamu (apparent-
ly an abbreviation of "kanji terminal") is
manufactured by Comnex Inc., and it's avail-
able for both the NEC and Fujitsu personal
computer families (and a few others). Kan-
tamu is a fairly primitive program that lets
you use your computer as a terminal, but
the program also offers file upload and
download capability, although it apparent-
ly doesn't support any communications
protocols. It doesn't let you capture incom-
ing and outgoing text in a disk file, but it
does allow on-line Japanese-language input
and does allow you to transmit files of
Japanese-language characters by first per-
forming "code conversion"; Japanese char-
acters are normally stored within the com-
puter in a 16-bit format. The program won't
handle complicated scripts, but it is capable

(continued)

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 317

BYTE JAPAN

of transmitting a prearranged log-on
sequence. Despite its limitations, the
program does help open up the world
of telecommunications to Japanese
personal computer owners in their
own language. Bulletin boards are
becoming increasingly popular here,
but generally speaking, the Japanese
lag behind the U.S. by several years
in personal computer communication.

Tokyo Telephone Woes

The biggest problem in telecommu-
nications hasn't been software, al-
though standardization of character
sets and codes is an issue; the worst
stumbling block has been the ante-
diluvian attitude of the Japanese
phone company. Most people are
forced to use acoustic couplers, since
until very recently it was illegal to at-
tach a modem to your telephone line.
Direct-connect modems have only
recently started to appear; they allow
full-duplex communication at only
300 bps, although I did see a few
1200-bps full-duplex modems and
acoustic couplers at the Data Show
the following week. Furthermore,
many common U.S.-made modems
are based on the Bell 103 and 21 2 A
standards, while the Japanese phone
system (and much of the rest of the
world) uses the CCITT (International

Consultative Committee for Telegraph
and 'telephone) standards; the signal-
ing frequencies are different, so they
can't "talk" to each other. (I installed
some jumpers and a switch in my old
Epson acoustic coupler, so I can com-
municate with modems based on
either standard, but I'm limited to 300
bps.) The Japanese phone company
recently became a private corpora-
tion and its recent liberalization prom-
ises to improve the situation. I look
forward to an explosive growth in
computer telecommunications in
Japan over the next few years.

Data Show— Printers

A handful of printers were among the
most interesting exhibits at the 1985
Data Show. Tokyo Electric Company's
TEC BP-10 laser printer was again on
display (it appeared as an OEM prod-
uct nearly a year ago), but this time
TEC announced that it would be avail-
able as a consumer product, under
the TEC label, in mid-1986 at a price
of around $2 500. At the same time,
TEC unveiled a companion model
scheduled to be available a little after
that, for about $2000. The less expen-
sive version uses a thermal method
for fixing the toner to the paper, while
the original BP-10 uses a pressure-
fixation method. Interestingly enough,

the less expensive machine seems to
produce a more pleasing print quali-
ty; dense black areas appear with a
dull matte finish, while they come out
slightly glossy with the pressure-
fixation scheme. Another laser printer
I hadn't seen before was the Facit
Opus I ; neither a price nor a date of
introduction was available as of the
Data Show, but it's designed for high-
volume use (20,000 pages per month
at 12 pages per minute). It's bound to
be more expensive than the TEC ma-
chine, which runs at 10 pages per
minute, but the Opus I is an extreme-
ly compact machine intended for per-
sonal and small office use. Both offer
extremely high-quality printing, with
a density of 300 dots per inch.

In the January 1985 BYTE Japan
(page 429), I mentioned that Casio
had announced a new type of printer,
its liquid-crystal shutter printer called
the LCS-2400, for delivery in the sec-
ond quarter of 1985. The price at that
time was supposed to be about
$1650. It was on display at this Data
Show for the first time, and deliveries
were supposed to start at the end of
October. Unfortunately, the price is
now pegged at about $6000! At the
originally announced price, the
LCS-2400 sounded like a viable alter-
native to laser printers; the print quali-

318 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

BYTE JAPAN

ty is nearly as good (about 240 dots
per inch), and it's nearly as fast (9
letter-size pages per minute). And the
LCS-2400, like most laser printers, lets
you download special fonts and form
designs for storage in the printer. It
seems foolish to think of buying the
LCS-2400 at the current price, though,
when much more inexpensive laser
printers will be available in a few
months.

A new printer, not introduced at the
show but one I expect to be available
in the very near future, promises to
be very reasonably priced. It's the still-
unnamed laser printer developed by
Hitachi and to be sold by Qume. Its
performance is rumored to match or
exceed that of the TEC printer and
may be comparable to Canon's "laser
engine."

The Sanyo booth turned out to be
one of the more interesting booths at
the show. On display but not in opera-
tion while I was there, was the Sanyo
SPX-800 LED printer. Like laser
printers and Casio's liquid-crystal shut-
ter printer, the SPX-800 is based on
the same principles as an electrostatic
copying machine (i.e., Xerox and
others); the image is produced by ex-
posing a statically charged surface (a
drum or belt) to light; a dark toner
material then adheres to the exposed

areas and the image is transferred to
the paper. The difference is in how the
drum is exposed to light. In a laser
printer, a rotating mirror causes a
laser beam to sweep across the drum;
the liquid-crystal shutter system
replaces the laser and mirror with a
fluorescent light and an array of LCD
"shutters," eliminating those moving
parts in the system that are critical for
alignment. The LED printer uses the
same idea but replaces the fluores-
cent light and LCD shutters with an
array of light-emitting diodes. The
Sanyo LED printer also uses an amor-
phous silicon drum, which it claims
improves drum life and reliability con-
siderably. Sanyo points out that the
SPX-800 can print a wider page than
most laser printers and is lighter and
more compact. It's also faster; Sanyo
claims a speed of 20 letter-size pages
per minute without sacrificing resolu-
tion: the SPX-800 offers selectable dot
densities of 8, 12, or 16 dots per
millimeter, which works out to about
200, 300, or 400 dots per inch.

Another Sanyo product that made
its debut at the Data Show was the
CLLr2000D optical character reader.
The interesting point here is that
"character" means "handwritten Jap-
anese kanji character." As I've pointed
out in this column in the past, Japan

is in the midst of a direct leap from
handwritten business correspon-
dence straight to word processing,
without having had much experience
with typewriters in between. And
since the CLL-2000D recognizes 2377
different characters, optical recogni-
tion is much more difficult than
recognizing handwritten characters in
English and European languages.
Nevertheless, that's what the
CLL-2000D claims to do (there was a
prototype on display but I didn't see
it working). It sells for about $9300 (at
the current exchange rate of 2 1 5 yen
to the dollar) and is supposed to be
able to recognize two kanji characters
per second or five alphanumeric char-
acters per second. It connects to a
personal computer through an
RS-232C serial interface. Japanese-lan-
guage draft documents are often writ-
ten on the type of rectangular-grid
paper the CLL-2000D requires as its
input, so the required standardized
spacing and size of the handwritten
characters may not be a practical
problem, but it's hard for me to
imagine how to justify the unit's high
cost in light of its limited speed. On
the other hand, two characters per
second is a respectable rate of input
compared to the speed of typists

(continued)

EMULATORS, AND UV ERASERS: $50 TO $5000

All from Logical Devices.
Choose from a complete, full-
featured product line of stand-
alone or PC driven units
designed to meet your every

PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, PLD f

& PAL* development and
production need; including
reasonable prices.

*PAL is a registered trademark of
Monolithic Memories, Inc.

Compare features, compare
price; then make the Logical
choice.

IT'S LOGICAL

For details, write or call:
1321 NW 65th Place,
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309;
(305) 974-0967
toll free 800-EE1-PROM

TELEX 383142

LOGICAL DEVICES INC

Inquiry 194

FEBRUARY I986 • BYTE 319

Inquiry 80

Diskettes BV hCenTecN

'he Colorful Solution to Data Organization'"

TIMELESS WARRANTY

A SS-DD QTY.IOO DS-DD

690
*85ft

Color Bulk

Color Boxed

Color Bulk 96 TPI

890*

$-|05*

$119**

$ 2

13 *•

IBM PC-AT Compatible Color Bulk £. DS-HD

100% error-free beyond 75% clipping level.
Available in 13 useful assorted colors.
Custom Labeling/Branding available.

"A"Color Bulk w/Tyvek sleeves add 6c. Label Kits 2c.
■^•Pre-packaged in Plastic Library Case/12. A $4.95 value case
for 20C/disk extra.

<

cH

*FREE 3M
Hip 'n' File™ Offer

LIFETIME WARRANTY

SS-DD QTY. 5 BOXES DS-DD

*89y

*$-|80

$-129*

i

96 TPI

$220*
*$Q79*

3.57135 TPI W/FREE FLIP N FILE L.

$093*

High Density w/free Flip *n' File DS-HD £*

3M Headcleaning Kit $5.99*

3M Data Cartridges (dc 1000) $10.60*

DC-3000XLP $17.37*

DC-600A $18.60*

* Price attor $2.00 per box cash backfrom3M.

IiCenTecIi

'Black" Diskettes

TIMELESS WARRANTY

SS-DD QTY. 50 DS-DD

790 g-99C

1

$2"

Factoty fresh in boxes of 10 with Tyvek
sleeves, user ID labels, write-protect tabs and
QQ reinforced hub ring. $009

8-inch soft or hard

Nashua "Boxed" Diskettes

LIFETIME WARRANTY

SS-DD t— - """~^ - DS-DD

850

$065

^3.5'735 TPI SL

Factory fresh in boxes of 10 with Tyvek
sleeves, user ID labels, write-protect tabs and
reinforced hub ring.
High Density for IBM PC-AT Compatible $2.59

100% By Leading American

Error- Rill K Media Manufacturer
Free ****""^ one of the top 2

LIFETIME WARRANTY

SS-DD QTY. 100 DS-DD

550

w/hub ring

Tyvek envelopes 6C ea.

PRINTER RIBBONS

Epson MX 70/80 $2.68

Epson MX-100 $4.06

Okidala 80,82,83,92,93 . $1.36
Okidala 84 $2.95

650

Labels 2C ea.

DISK STORAGE
Amray Media Mate

50 $7.99

Disk Minder II-75 $8.99

Micro Disk Minder-36 ... $7.75

PRICE PROMISE: We will better any
lower delivered price on the same products
and quantities advertised nationally.
TERMS: FREE USE OF VISA AND MAS-
TERCARD. American Express also accepted.
Shipping: Add $3.00 per 1 OO diskettes orfrac-
tion thereof. Other items add $3.00 for disk
storage or headcleaning kit or dozen ribbons
or C.O.D. orders. P.O. accepted from recog-
nized institutions and schools on 2%-10 Net
30. Utah residents add 53/4%, sales tax.
Minimum order $30.00.

TOLL FREE ORDER LINE:

1 -800-233-2477

INFORMATION AND INQUIRIES:

1-801-942-6717

2028 E. FT. UNION BLVD.. 105

-»— ...*~ SALT LAKE CITY - UTAH 8412t

OmpUter CALL: 1-80Q-AFFAIRS
I ffclirS, lite. HOURS: 9AM-6PM M-F (Mtn. Tin

BYTE JAPAN

using Japanese-language word-pro-
cessing programs.

New Personal Computer
from Sanyo

Sanyo's IBM PC-compatible com-
puters are not sold widely in Japan,
and the company's MBC-6800 com-
puter, an 8086-based machine, has
had only limited success here, partly
due to its high price. Depending on
how well Sanyo can compete with the
NEC (and, to a lesser degree, Fujitsu)
sales and service networks, its new
MBC-5800, introduced at the Data
Show, could give it a big boost. This
computer is no more technologically
sophisticated than, say, the NEC
PC-9801 series, and less so than the
Fujitsu FM-16/3; it's based on the
8086-2 microprocessor, running at 8
MHz, and comes with 256K bytes of
RAM (random-access read/write
memory) plus 192K bytes of graphics
video RAM. Those features are similar
to those offered on the NEC PC-9801
machines, except for the amount of
built-in RAM (NEC offers 512K in most
models, less in others) and the 768K
bytes of installable RAM in the Sanyo.
It offers 640- by 800-dot graphics and
can do graphic scrolling in single-dot
units. You have a choice of three
models, differing only in their disk-
drive configurations and the bundled
software. The MBC-5800S has a single
floppy-disk drive, the MBC-5800W has
two floppy-disk drives, and the
MBC-5800H has one floppy-disk drive
and one built-in 10-megabyte hard-
disk drive. The floppy-disk drives sup-
port either 1 -megabyte or 640K-byte
formats. Sanyo claims the machine
can read disks recorded on either
NEC PC-9801 series or Fujitsu FM-16/3
computers, a big plus and the first
noticeable move in Japan toward com-
patibility between computers from
different manufacturers. Sanyo
bundles Japanese-language versions
of both CP/M-86 and MS-DOS 2. 1 1
with the MBC-5800 (except for the
single-disk version), along with BASIC,
a business graphics package, a
simplified display generator, a
Japanese word-processing program
called JWP, and various utilities.

The main unconventional feature of
the MBC-5800 is its built-in voice syn-
thesizer. It's basically an 8-octave,
3-channel programmable sound gen-
erator. I listened to it reading arbitrary
alphabetic characters I typed at the
keyboard, as well as "speaking" preset
Japanese sentences. Its pronunciation
was quite good; the pacing and artic-
ulation made the "speech" easy to
understand. However, without sub-
stantially more software support, I'm
afraid the voice synthesizer will re-
main only an interesting gimmick, but
Sanyo suggests that it will be used for
such applications as games or notify-
ing the operator that a printout or
data-communication task has been
completed. In any case, there should
be lots of educational possibilities for
voice synthesizers of this quality.

The prices of the MBC-5800 ma-
chines, and the bundled software,
make them competitive with their
NEC and Fujitsu counterparts. The
dual floppy-disk version sells for the
equivalent of about $17 50, while the
hard-disk version is about $2950.
(Again, prices reflect an exchange rate
of 2 1 5 yen to the dollar.)

Ampere is Current

Ampere Corporation here in Tokyo
makes the beautiful and very power-
ful WS-1 lap-size portable computer;
it uses the 68000 microprocessor.
Ampere's integrated software pack-
age, written entirely in APL, is now in
the beta-test stage and looks like it's
very easy to learn and use. I hope to
report on it further in a later column.
Meanwhile, Ampere has informed me
that it will soon announce an extreme-
ly compact external 3 J /2-inch, 15-
megabyte hard-disk drive as a WS-I
accessory; Kusanagi-san, the presi-
dent of Ampere, told me that you'll
be able to daisy-chain up to four of
the drives connected to a WS-1.

Coming Next

Next month I'll discuss one of two
new programming languages created
in Japan, and an issue it raises. I'll also
tell you about my new laptop portable
and how I was able to justify buying
it. ■

FEBRUARY 1986

I

01

>

CO

(0

0)

c

(0

a

E

o
O

Biq Savings

ReliableSupport

Full Documentation

Monitor*

$649

STANDARCEe

brand products

^ PC/XT

'Intel 8088-3 (4.77 MHz)
Half-HeightFloppy Disk Drive
640KRam

I »1 35 Watt Power Supply

* »8 Total Slots
•Keyboard

Includes 1 Year Warranty!

Don't Compromise Your Price Savings With Poor Quality Or

ncomplete Documentation. WeOffer I B/vfCompatibility At

A Reduced Price In A Complete Package.

0)

>

CO

CO
U

V

L.
(0

a

E
o
O

s Non-Infringing BIOS Copyright

^ Extended Burn-In Testing

^ 100 Page Illustrated Users Guide

"Runs All Major

Software Written For

The IBM* PC&XT"

pa

SOURCE

12303-G Technology
Austin, TX. 78727

Call Toll Free 1 -800-626-4027
WithinTexas 512-331-6200

Setting The Import Standard

Our Factory-Direct Volume Buying Saves You

Money. ..Quality Assured With Our

STANDARD 2 Year Warranty

STANDARDIE

BRAND PRODUCTS

Enhancement Products For
The IBM PC Market.

STANDARDS MFC

w/384K

Memory

•384KRam • Parallel Port

•Clock/Calendar •Game Port
•Serial Port • Software

$129

64K.
256K

$8
$29

Intel

Math Co-Processor

8087 $119

I 80287 $219

FDC

Controls Up to4 Floppy
Disk. Includes Internal Cables.

$49

5151
Keyboard

MonoCard

Monochrome

DisplayCard

With Parallel Port

$99

$119

135 Watt

Replacement
PowerSupply

$85

Brand Name Products At Bargain Prices...

SixPakPlus

W/384K

$249

HEWLETT
PACKARD

• Serial Port • Memory Expansion

• Parallel Port • Sidekick Software
•Clock/Calendar • 2 Year Warranty

Plotters

7475 SixPenSizeA&B

7440 ColorPro 8 Pen, Size A

$1395
$1195

^o Charge For UPS Ground
Shipping. No Surcharge For
MasterCard or VISA. Fortune 1000
3 urchase Order Welcome. All
Warranty Work Must Have A
Return Authorization Number.

pa

SOURCE

1 2303-G Technology Austin, TX. 78727

Outside Texas

800-626-4027

InsideTexas
512-331-6200

BYTE U.K.

Tripos—The Roots
of AmigaDOS

Metacomco

is the British

company

behind

AmigaDOS

by Dick Pountain

Dick Pountain is a technical author

and software consultant living in

London. England. He can be

contacted do BYTE. POB 372,

Hancock, NH 03449.

A question that must be puzzling
many people in U.S. computer
circles is, "What is Metacomco?"
When Commodore announced its spec-
tacular Amiga computer, much of the U.S.
press failed to point out (and possibly did
not know) that the advanced operating
system AmigaDOS was in fact written by a
small British software house called
Metacomco. (For more information on the
Amiga, see "The Amiga Personal Com-
puter" by Gregg Williams, Jon Edwards, and
Phillip Robinson, August 1985 BYTE, page
83.)

Metacomco is based in Bristol, England,
a city that is beginning to rival Cambridge
as our potential computing capital (it also
houses TDI-Pinnacle, INMOS, and others).
Metacomco was founded in 1981 by Derek
Budge and Bill Meakin and now employs
' about 2 5 people, mainly programmers and
other technical staff.

The company's first product was a por-
table BASIC interpreter written in BCPL, the
forerunner of C, which is taught and used
extensively at Cambridge University. This in-
terpreter was ported to the 8086 processor
and shortly afterward was sold to Digital
Research Inc., which still markets its descen-
dant as Personal BASIC. This U.S. link
became very important to Metacomco, for
the royalties provided a steady source of
income during the crucial early years and
helped the company establish an office in
California, which kept Metacomco in touch
with the U.S. computer scene.

In 1983 Dr. Tim King, a Cambridge com-
puter scientist, was engaged by the com-
pany as a consultant, and Metacomco's em-
phasis switched to the 68000 processor,
with which King had been working since the
first samples came out in 1981. The com-
pany produced a series of development
tools, also written in BCPL, including a full-
screen editor, a macro assembler, and a
linking loader. At that time there was no
clearly established standard operating sys-
tem for the 68000, so the next step was to

write one. Subsequently Ifipos was born.

The Tripos operating system was based
on a multitasking kernel developed as a
doctoral thesis project at Cambridge in
1976. ("Tripos" was the name given to the
three-legged stools that students sat on in
the old days when taking their examinations
and has since become the colloquial name
for the Cambridge final examinations.) King,
then working at Bath University, took the
kernel written for a DEC PDP-11 and made
it into a full 3 2 -bit multitasking operating
system for the Sage microcomputer (which
was new at that time). Tripos is BCPLrbased
in the same way that UNIX is C-based, and
it has many innovative features that I will
discuss.

Metacomco had also purchased the rights
to Cambridge LISP, a powerful LISP inter-
preter/compiler originally developed for the
IBM. 3 70 and then ported to the 68000 at
Cambridge. Metacomco produced versions
for the ill-fated CP/M 68K and then for
Tripos. Reduce 3, a symbolic math system
written in LISP, was added to produce a
Sage-based workstation that was sold to
research institutions in various countries.
Customers included SORD in Japan and
Bristol neighbor INMOS, who used BCPL,
for the first stage of bootstrapping its
Occam compiler onto the 68000, using
Sage computers running Tripos.

In 1984. Tim King joined Metacomco full-
time as Research Director, and Sinclair
Research launched the QL. Initially the QL
lacked a serious software-development en-
vironment, and Metacomco was able to
quickly port its development tools, in-
cluding the BCPL compiler, to it. The com-
pany has since extended the range to in-
clude an ISO (International Organization for
Standardization)-validated Pascal computer,
and it markets these products directly,
rather than via the manufacturer, largely by
mail order.

November 1984 is the crucial date in the
AmigaDOS story. Metacomco visited Amiga

[continued)

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 321

An RS-232 Break-Out-Box
at a Fraction of the Cost.

RS-232 Multi-Adapter Board: 9 LED's for signal
monitoring. 24 switches to open any line (except line
1). 20 jumper wires allow re-wiring to any con-
figuration. 1 male and 1 female connector. Order
directl Only $59.95. All cash orders postpaid. (IL
res. add 6% sales tax). We Accept MC, Visa. Free
illustrated catalog of RS-232 interface and testing
equipment. Phone: 815-434-0846. Make checks
payable to:

B&n electronics
BB MANUFACTURING COMPANY

P.O. Box 1008B, OTTAWA, IL 61350

Inquiry 32

_Safe§feinliM

KEYBOARD PROTECTOR
Remains in place during keyboard use. Prevents
damage from liquid spills, dust, ashes, etc. Fits
like a second skin, excellent feel. Available for:
IBM-PC, AT, Apple (all), Compaq, Model 100,
NEC 8201, C64, Zenith 150, DEC, Kaypro and
many others, Send $29.95, check, M.O., Visa
& MC include exp. date. Specify computer type.
Dealer inquiries invited. Free brochure avail.

Merritt Computer Products, Inc.

2925LBJFwy. *180 / Dallas, Texas 75234

(214) 942-1142

Inquiry 217

BYTE U.K.

Corporation (which was still in the
midst of finalizing its purchase by
Commodore) to discuss the sale of
Metacomco's 68000 Pascal compiler
for Amiga's new Lorraine machine, as
it was then called. During these dis-
cussions it was revealed that the
Amiga operating system (OS) was way
behind schedule and causing some
concern. Amiga's stipulations for the
Lorraine OS were that it should be
multitasking, should support both
synchronous and asynchronous I/O,
and that the I/O should be stream-
based and hardware-independent.
Metacomco was already marketing
just such an operating system, Iftpos,
running on the 68000. Amiga agreed
to consider THpos as insurance, in
case its already-commissioned system
didn't work out.

In February 1985 Metacomco was
given the go-ahead, and Ifipos was
ported to the Lorraine in three weeks
flat, thanks to its BCPL portability (al-
though the kernel is written in 68000
code for efficiency). King recalls that
when he demonstrated it at the end
of February he turned from the
screen to find the whole Amiga staff
gathered around applauding; the
hardware had suddenly become a
real computer. The existing OS was
dumped, and the job of turning Iftpos
into AmigaDOS began.

Fortunately for Metacomco, there
was a remarkably close fit between
Tftpos's internal structure and Amiga's
planned software architecture. TVipos
is conceptually organized on classic
OS lines, with a scheduler, a message-
passing system, and a set of device
drivers. Amiga's programmers already
had ROM (read-only memory) rou-
tines to do the jobs of scheduling and
message passing and the crucial
device drivers for the very special
custom chips, the Copper and the Emit-
ter, which handle the graphics, anima-
tion, and sound. (For more informa-
tion on the custom chips, see the in-
terview with Jay Miner entitled "The
Amiga's Custom Graphics Chips" con-
ducted by Phillip Robinson, Novem-
ber 1985 BYTE, page 169.) The story
might have ended right there had
these drivers needed to be written

from scratch, given that these were
new and unknown custom parts and
were probably only partly debugged
at the time. The people at Metacom-
co integrated these parts with the
disk-file I/O system, console-text I/O,
printer I/O, and command-line pro-
cessor from Tripos to make Amiga-
DOS.

The Amiga staff produced the icons/
windows front end called Intuition
that sits on top of AmigaDOS; we
have Metacomco to thank, though, for
insisting that an underlying CL\
(command-line interface) be always
available as a programmers' interface
and for more experienced users.

The relationship between Commo-
dore-Amiga and Metacomco has now
become quite close. Metacomco's
Pascal, LISP, and a much-modified
BASIC are all running on the Amiga.
The BASIC story is rather complicated
in itself. Amiga had already commis-
sioned Microsoft for a version of its
much-delayed Macintosh BASIC to be
put onto the machine. At the launch
in July, however, it was Metacomco's
ABASIC that was seen by the press,
though certain "ambiguities" may
have led people to think it was Micro-
soft's. At the time of this writing, the
language that finally got shipped with
the machine still appeared rather
vague. | Editor's note: We have since learned
that ABASIC, which started out as Meta-
comco's, will become Microsoft's] Meta-
comco is currently working on en-
hancing ABASIC to permit procedures
with parameters, optional line num-
bers, and full compilation; the present
version is structurally still at the
Microsoft version 5.2 level. It does,
however, have some astonishingly
powerful Amiga hardware support
commands, such as TRANSLATE and
NARRATE, which respectively convert
an ASCII string into a phoneme string
and then speak it. All the power of the
custom chips is accessible through
high-level BASIC statements rather
than through PEEKs and POKEs.

Tripos/AmigaDOS

The Tripos operating system has some
features that are not usually found in

{continued)

1-800-231-9842

WESTERN REGIONAL ORDERS

• Low Low Prices

• No Surcharge for MasterCard
and VISA

1-800-237-4048

EASTERN REGIONAL ORDERS

These Fine Corporations, Universities and Companies Put Their
Trust In "COMPUTER MART 3

ATT

3M

Magnavox

Eaton

Merrill Lynch

American Savings
Landmark Mortgage
American Nurse Assoc.
Dun & Bradstreet
U.S. Navy - Army

University of:
California
Illinois
New York
Colorado State

Put Your Trust In COMPUTER MART

• COMPUTERS •

IBM ENHANCED AT 4928

JBM ENTRY LEVEL AT 3241

IBM PC, 1 DSDD DR, 256K . . 1702

IBM PC, 2 DSDD DR, 256K . . 1826

IBM PC, NO DRIVES, 64K . . . 1316
IBM PC, 2 HALF/HYTE

256K 1702

IBM XT, 1DSDD DR/10MB,

256K 3355

IBM XT, 1DSDD DR/TA HD,

256K 2491

COMPAQ, 2 DSDD, 256K .... 2173
COMPAQ PORTABLE 2

MODEL 2 5292

COMPAQ DESK PRO

MODEL 3 3304

COMPAQ DESKPRO

MODEL 2 2156

• MONITORS •

AMDEK 300G 119

AMDEK 300A 133

AMDEK 310A 149

AMDEK 600 RGB COLOR .... 409
AMDEK 710 SUPER HI RES

COLOR 447

IBM COLOR 616

IBM MONOCHROME 235

PRINCETON MAX-12 E 160

PRINCETON HX-12 RGB

COLOR 446

PRINCETON SR-12 575

PRINCETON HX-12E

COLOR 510

QUADRAM AMBER-
CHROME 150

QUADRAM QUADCHROME

II 426

AMDEK 722 510

• DISPLAY CARDS •

STB SUPER HI RES 400 409

HERCULES COLOR 151

IBM MONOCHROME 218

IBM COLOR 230

EVEREX GRAPHICS EDGE ... 263

EVEREX THE EDGE 243

GENOA SPECTRUM 289

TECMAR GRAPHICS

MASTER 467

PARADISE MODULAR

GRAPHICS 274

• BOARDS •

AST SIX PACK PLUS,

64K 218

AST MEGAPLUS, 64 K 265

AST MP-2, 64K 232

AST ADVANTAGE, 128K 391

AST I/O PLUS 122

JRAM-2 156

QUADRAM QUADBOARD

0K 186

QUADSPRINT 423

TECMAR CAPTAIN, 0K 162

TECMAR FIRST MATE, 0K . . . 200
TECMAR WAVE XT, 64K 187

• MODEMS •

HAYES 2400 638

HAYES 300 138

HAYES 300/1200 407

HAYES 1200B

w/SOFTWARE 386

HAYES 1200B 351

VEN-TEL HALF CARD 381

VEN-TEL 300/1200

INTERNAL 347

AST REACH HALF CARD
1200

363

• PRINTERS •

OKIDATA 83A, WIDE

CARRIAGE 554

OKIDATA 84P, WIDE

CARRIAGE 672

OKIDATA 2410P 1814

OKIDATA 182 215

OKIDATA 192 376

OKIDATA 182S 259

OKIDATA 84 672

EPSON FX-80 TRACTOR 371

EPSON LX-80 241

EPSON FX-185, WIDE

CARRIAGE 541

EPSON FX-100, WIDE

CARRIAGE 531

EPSON JX-80 COLOR

PRINTER 541

EPSON LQ-1500

• PARALLEL 940

NEC 2050 694

NEC 3550 1058

NEC 8850 1478

JUKI 6300 698

JUKI 6200 503

JUKI 6100 362

• ACCESSORIES •

NEC BI-DIRECTIONAL

TRACTOR 151

NEC CUT SHEET GUIDE .... 63
JUKI 6100 BI-DIRECTION

TRACTOR 105

JUKI 6300 BI-DIRECTION

TRACTOR 122

MEMORY, 65K CHIPS 8

MEMORY, 256K CHIPS 39

PRINTER CABLE 10

MICROFAZER BUFFER, 8K . . . 131

BERNOULLI, 2 DRIVE 2615

BERNOULLI, 1 DRIVE 1790

Save

(<!>

BS5SSW

SI

381? msbii oo<n I »"»« ^-^ ' iiflI *
-■,«•■»■ ii -w.it ■ J jyy rno»*

CCMPU1ER

ivwRr

1901 S. TAMIAMI TRAIL, VENICE, FL 33595
2820 W. CHARLESTON, LAS VEGAS, NV 89102

Call for non-advertised and lower current prices. IBM
is a registered Trademark of International Business
Machines. Prices subject to change. We accept all
major credit cards, money orders, and personal
checks. 2% surcharge for shipping, handling and
COD shipments, and purchase orders S100 minimum.
Returns are subject to a 15% restocking fee. All sales final.

IN FLORIDA CALL 813-493-2736
IN NEVADA CALL 702-877-3988

Inquiry 87

FEBRUARY I986 -BYTE 323

BYTE U.K.

microcomputer operating systems,
particularly in the area of disk-file
organization, and these have been in-
herited by AmigaDOS. Many of these
advanced ideas stem from TVipos's
origins in a computer science re-
search project; there is much em-
phasis on doing things the way they
should be done, rather than kludging
around the way the last guy did it.
TVipos is based on the concepts of
multiple tasks and message passing.
When an application task is started,
it finds a number of other tasks al-
ready running. In particular, there will
be one for each peripheral device that
it needs to talk to, though some of
these tasks sleep until awakened by

a demand for service from another
task. A debugger task also runs con-
tinuously in the kernel, which is a
great boon to the programmer. An
application's environment, greatly
simplifed, might look like figure I .

Every peripheral device is served by
its own task. All tasks run concurrently
or, strictly speaking, pseudocurrently,
since there is only one central pro-
cessing unit, and the application gets
the resources it needs by sending and
receiving messages. If a program
needs 200 bytes of disk storage, it
might send a message to file task I
requesting this. The file task has its
own cache buffer, and it will proceed
to get a new block into the cache by

APPLICATION

1

1 :

>

FILE TASKS

1

CONSOLE TASKS

i i

WINDOWl WINDOW2

Figure I : An example of a simplified applications environment.

VOL NAME
DATE

ROOT BLOCK

HASH TABLE

<

l

i

'

\

I

SUB DIR

FRED

FILE

BILL

Figure 2: An example of hash collision. Extension blocks are chained onto the pointed-
to block, and the collision is resolved by string matching.

in turn communicating with the disk
device, which has its own track buf-
fer so that whole tracks are read in at
one time. When the file task has the
block, it sends a message to the ap-
plication that the store is now avail-
able.

One consequence of this structure
is that, unlike simpler systems such as
CP/M and PC-DOS, it's possible for
disk activity to occur at seemingly ran-
dom times, without the user doing
anything to provide it; this is quite
spooky until you get used to it.

The only limit on the number of
tasks that can run is the memory avail-
able; it is not a virtual-memory sys-
tem, but code sharing is used to
minimize the memory requirement
during multiple invocations of similar
tasks. Iksks can be given priorities,
and any task can be executed in the
background from the command line
by typing RUN <taskname>. The
CLI is itself a task, and multiple CLIs
can be spawned if desired.

The message-passing interface is
quite similar to that in UNIX and is
identical for all devices and applica-
tions; it includes messages like Open,
Close, Read, Write, and Seek.

File Structure

It's in the area of disk-file structure
that Tripos is truly radical. For starters,
there is no directory track on a Tripos
disk, and indeed no directory in the
usual sense of a table of filenames. In-
stead, TVipos uses a root block, which
is placed in the center of the disk sur-
face rather than on track as is usual.
The root block contains the volume
name of the disk and the date of crea-
tion and last modification. Following
this is a hash table, via which file or sub-
directory names get turned into block
numbers. Each block so pointed to
can be a directory or a file, leading to
a hierarchical directory structure like
that in UNIX or PC-DOS 2. In the case
of hash collision (perhaps "Fred" and
"Bill" both hash to the same block
number), extension blocks are
chained onto the pointed-to block,
and the collision is resolved by string
matching (see figure 2).

[continued)

324 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Want to hear
a demonstration of

Hewlett-Packard's

BYTE U.K.

Subdirectories have the same struc-
ture as the root block, while file
headers have a filename, date, and a
table of the data-block numbers that
constitute the file. The size of the
block is fixed (512K bytes in Amiga-
DOS, 1024K in Sage Iflpos). and when
a file header runs out of space for its
block table, it merely chains on an ex-
tension block.

lb optimize speed of data access,
file headers and subdirectories are
allocated inward from the root block,
while data blocks are allocated out-
ward, so that consecutive blocks can
be kept close together (see figure 3).

This whole scheme has several
beneficial consequences, compared
to more conventional operating sys-
tems. There are no arbitrary limits on
anything; files are governed only by
the physical storage capacity of the
medium. All files are automatically
random-access. Moreover, there is no
distinction between binary and ASCII
files, as files do not need to contain
any special control characters like A Z
for end-of-file. All files are the same,
just blocks of "stuff."

There is more, however. All the
blocks that make up a file contain
pointers to the next block in line
(enabling efficient sequential access)
and also a back pointer to their header
block. The inclusion of these features

means that even if a file header gets
completely mangled, it can be recon-
structed by the reading pointers in the
data blocks; the individual data know
their own identity (see figure 4).

Metacomco also has a "disk doctor"
program that can reconstruct a disk,
both files and directories, from almost
any state of damage short of total
data loss, and it can do it automati-
cally. This is a very significant step
forward in mass-storage security com-
pared to PC-DOS, where the corrup-
tion of a directory track can lead to
leaps from high buildings.

The only penalties paid, as trade-
offs for all the advantages, are that
directory listing and file renaming are
slower than in conventional systems,
because there is no single place to go
to look for filenames; the whole tree
structure needs to be traversed to find
the names. Metacomco is currently
considering caching the directory
structure to alleviate this problem, but
from my limited experience of the
Amiga, it doesn't seem too bad any-
way; it's not much slower than an IBM
PC by the time the latter's disk-access
and screen-updating speeds have
taken their toll.

Given the multitasking nature of
Tr/ipos, and hence the unpredictable
times of disk accesses, measures were
necessary to manage disk changing

DATA «•

►HEADERS.

SUBDiRS

DISK CENTER

ROOT

Figure 3: File headers and subdirectories are allocated inward and data blocks allocated
outward to optimize speed of data access.

FILE HEADER

'

/

i

i

\

BACK POINTERS

DATA BLOCKS

Figure 4: A file header can be reconstructed by reading pointers in the data blocks.

gracefully. Accordingly Tripos keeps
a bit map of the disk usage in mem-
ory-the same idea as a PC-DOS FAT
(file-allocation table)— which has a bit
set for every block in use. As men-
tioned before, each file task keeps its
own block buffer in memory. After
disk activity (signaled by the usual red
light) there is a three-second time-out
period, after which the task automat-
ically flushes its buffers and the up-
dated bit map to disk. If a disk is
removed during the time-out period,
the bit map on disk will be marked as
invalid, and when that disk is re-
inserted, a validation task in the kernel
will automatically be invoked to re-
build the bit map. Only if the disk is
removed when the red light is actual-
ly on is there any chance of losing
data; Amiga and Metacomco debated
long and hard about a mechanical
locking scheme similar to that on the
Macintosh but decided against it after
observing the unpopularity of the lat-
ter scheme (with everyone except the
paper-clip industry, that is).

Tripos knows all about disk volumes
and can find a volume in any drive or
prompt for it to be inserted as re-
quired; no messing about with default
drives or logging on. It is, in fact,
possible to remove a disk with a file
still open, use a new disk, then be
prompted by the system to replace
the first disk and continue.

As in UNIX, all devices are ad-
dressed as files, with a device name
replacing the volume name that
would be used in a full-file spec. The
device CON: may have window-size
parameters attached to it, as in
CON:20/20/100/100/Fred, which ad-
dresses an 80- by 80-character win-
dow called Fred. The serial port and
printer can be addressed in a similar
way.

Conclusion

The relationship between Metacomco
and Commodore-Amiga seems to
have been mutually beneficial. The
Amiga got itself a mature and capable
operating system that was designed
on sound, though not conservative,
principles. Metacomco, on the other

[continued)

326 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

, W^ntto. "■
hear it again?

You made about as much noise turning the page as the

Think Jet Printer makes turning one out.

So it lets you do two things at once. Print. And think.

Without sound hoods. Without remote printing stations.

Without aspirin. (And without a lot of clutter. The only thing

smaller than the Think Jet Printer is its price: $495?)

Better still, it works with just about every personal computer.

Hear the Think Jet Printer sound off.

Call (800) FOR-HPPC, Dept.276X, for the

Hewlett-Packard dealer nearest you.

ci

HEWLETT
PACKARD

Inquiry 158

*US. list price. PG02511

BYTE U.K.

Metacomco maintains
its strong links with
both Cambridge and
Bath universities.

hand, gained a stronger foothold in
the U.S., along with the respect of
those in the U.S. computer industry
who were already aware of its ex-
istence.

Whether or not the Amiga will be
the world-shaker that I think it
deserves to be must remain the great
"wait and see" question of the year.
Although some teething problems are
emerging, it's likely that they'll be less
serious than they might have been
had a totally untried OS been
adopted.

I've felt for some time that there is
insufficient user awareness of just how
complex the new-generation, post-
Macintosh, operating systems are. The
days of "patch it and hope" are gone
forever, and we are now deep into the
territory of heavyweight software
engineering; debugging must now be
considered a continuing process, and
the chances of a bug-free OS at
launch (or even a year later) are pretty
remote. Commodore-Amiga is still
debating whether or not to commit
AmigaDOS to ROM in Macintosh style
(first machines are being shipped with
a disk-based DOS). Tim King is solid-
ly in favor of keeping a disk-based
DOS for precisely these reasons.

As for Metacomco's future plans, it
is content for the moment to remain
with the 68000, a processor in which
the company's accumulated expertise
is now paying dividends. The Atari
520ST has attracted Metacomco's at-

tention, and its staff has already put
the assembler/editor combination
onto it, soon to be followed by Pascal
and Lattice C An IBM PC-based de-
velopment system, complete with
cross-assembler, has just been an-
nounced also. The relationship with
Lattice arose when it was commis-
sioned to put the compiler onto the
Sinclair QL; Metacomco ended up
marketing it.

Metacomco still maintains its strong
links with both Cambridge and Bath
universities (King still teaches a com-
puter science course at Bath) and
pays them royalties for work such as
the original Tripos kernel. It ex-
emplifies the slow but welcome trend
toward fruitful collaboration between
academia and commerce that is new
to the U.K., although it has been stan-
dard practice on U.S. campuses since
the beginning of the microelectronics
revolution. ■

HARMONY VIDEO & COMPUTERS

2357 CONEY ISLAND AVE.. BROOKLYN. NY 11223

800VIDEO84 OR 800441 -1 144 OR 718-627-1000

tf^

Commodore 128

PANASONIC 1091

x^z_^

w

$249.00

$221.95

STAR SG 10

IBM P.C. NO DRIVES

$197.95

$1259.95

'PRINTER SPEC \i

Ils'

Brother HR15XL

312

NEC 2050

593

Powertype

275

Brother HR35

535

NEC 3550

915

StarSGIO

198

Citizen MSP 10

234

NECB850

290

StarSG15 .

331

Epson LX80

208

Okldata192

323

Star SD 10

299

Epson LQ1500

837

Okldat 193

463

Star SD 15

390

DX10

223

Okidata182

208

Star SR 10

425

DX20

319

OklmatelO

115

StarSRl5

510

DX35

819

Olympal ro

250

Star SB 10

479

FX185

458

Panasonic KXP 1091

222

Silver Reed Exp 550

349

FX85

2

239

Panasonic KXP 1092

292

Silver Reed Exp 500

229

HP LaserJet

2

652

Panasonic KXP 1093

390

Silver Reed Exp 770

850

IBM Proprlnter

280

Panasonic KXP 3151

382

Silver Reed Exp 400

189

jukieioo

335

Toshiba 1340
Toshiba341
Toshiba351

385
739
984

IBM

¥1

'.

IBM

n

MONITORS

AT Enhanced

3796

20 Meg Drive w/cont.

478

Amdek 300 Green

104

ATUnenhanced

2912

8087 Chip

99

Amdek300 Amber

109

IBM Monitor

218

80287 Chip

146

310 Amber

129

IBM PC No drives

1280

ASTAdvantages

383

Color300

152

PCXT

1629

Everex Edge

254

Color500

222

PCXTClone

1049

Everex Magic

164

Color600

364

IBM Drive

146

Color710

390

IBM Pro Printer
AST Six Psck
Tall Grass 25 Meg

380
193
2392

ATARI

130XE

127

Color 722
PrlnctonHX12
Princton Max 12

458
390
142

Quad Board

172

800 XL

75

SR12
Taxan 420

533

Keytronlcs

115

1027 Printer

109

Hercules Color

136

1050 Drive

129

Hercules Monochrome

277

Indus. Drive

204

APPLE

Paradise Grsphics

248

520STBW

709

2E w/Disk Drive

790

Paradise 5 Pack

129

MODEMS

Addl. Drives from 104

STB Graphics + 2
STBR10 + 2
STB Mono Board

202
172
146

Hayes 1200-

Hayes 1200B w/Smartcom

349
323
120
562
123
68
284

COMMODORE

Tecmar Graphics

411

HayesSOO
Hayes 2400
Mlcromodem 2E
Novation J-cat
Promethousl200

Commodore64

144

TecmarCaptian
Perayat Monocard
Bernouli Box
Tallgrass 35 Meg
KeyTronlcs Keyboard
10 Meg Drive vWcont.

148
137
1622
3120
109
384

1541 Disk Drive
MPS 803
Monitor
Indus. Drive
Commodore 128
1571 Drive

172
104
169
195
249
219

800-441-1144

HRRDISK CARDS 10M

IN STOCK

699.00

20M

IN STOCK

849.00

€PSON €QUITV 1

PC COMPRTRBL€ COMPUTER

256K-1FLOPPV

795.00

256K-2FLOPPV

949.00

256K-20M HRRDDISK-1FLOPPV

1595.00

€PSON PRINTERS

R€TRIL

OUR PRIC€

UC-80

299.00

209.00

UC-90(UU/PIC)

379.00

219.00

FX-85

499.00

329.00

FX-286(200 CPS)

749.00

499.00

IQ-800(PRR/S€R)

795.00

569.00

IQ-1500

1295.00

829.00

JX-80(COIOR)

399.00

299.00

DX-20(DRISV UUH€€L)

459.00

329.00

BOX€D BRSF DISKS:

(MIN.W BOX€S)

DSDD

10 BX 12.95

100 BX 10.95

BOX€D BRSF QTV

PRIC€ €R.

QTV PRK€ €R.

SSDD 500

.79

1000 .75

DSDD 500

.85

1000 .79

BOX€D MBX€LL DISKS:

(MIN.W BOX€S)

DSDD

10 BX 19.95

100 BX 18.95

I QURD(RT)

10 BX 41.00

100 BX 39.00

INTCRNRL HRRD DISKS

(LOW POLU€R)

10 MB UU/CONTROl€R

439.00

20 MB S€GRT€ UU/CONTROl€R

499.00

135 UURTT POUU€R SUPPLV

99.00

THIRD PLRN€T UUHOL€SRL€RS 612-432-5864
R N€UU WORLD FOR VOU RND VOUR COMPUTER
8053 BLOOMINGTON FRUUV SUIT€ 121
BLOOMINGTON, MN. 55420

Items reflect 4% cash or check discount. Fory our protection we check for stolen credit cards,
m.c. visa welcome. Personal checks cause 4 week delay.

328 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 151

Inquiry 378

Low Cost Multi-User Solutions

For IBM PC, XTA AT

veryone is looking
for a multi-user solu-
tion. They want to
convert their
IBM PC, XT, AT or other compati-
bles into multi-user systems, while
maintaining compatibility, relia-
bility, and most of all LOW COST.
Well. . .Kimtron Corporation has
made it all possible . We have
been converting thousands of
PCs into multi-user systems each
month.

Besides compatibility and low
cost, all terminals or stations are
PC work-a-like . Kimtron is the only
manufacturer that provides a
total package of the multi-user
solutions combining hardware
and software . With a facility that
has production capabilities of
360,000 units a year, Kimtron is
ready to serve your needs for
multi-user solutions and other
terminals in any quantity.
Kimtron's strong service and

support network backs up every
installation. Nation wide on-site
service or depo service is availa-
ble through ITT SERVCOM. * *

Kimtron supplies total solutions
including all necessary hardware
and software:
Standards

► KT-7/PC terminal

► Cables

► PC DOS Overlay

Options

► I/O Board

► Intelligent I/O Board

► Monochrome or Color Monitor
and Keyboard

► Turbo Board: 8086 or 80286

► Add-on Memory Board

► Multi-Processor 8088 or 80286
Board

► I/O Driver

► Network Board

► File Server

Whether you use PC DOS, XENIX,
UNIX, THEOS, Concurrent Dos,

PICK, Multi-Link, or any other
operating systems . . .

Whether you employ the time
sharing method that is simple
and economical, or the multiple
processor method that is powerful
and fast...

Whether you use alphanumeric,
graphics, or full color graphics
application...

Whether you are an end user,
dealer, value adding reseller,
OEM, or distributor. . .

Kimtron has the right solution for
you ! Write or call us today!

(408) 286-8790 TWX: 910-338-0237

**nT SERVCOM- 1(415)571-1344.
Ask for your Kimtron Representa-
tive.

^|p~ _A 1705 Junction Court
W -= Building #160

^= San Jose, CA 95112

K imtron

** "NOTE, IBM PC, XT, AX PC DOS, XENIX, UNIX, Multi-Link. Concurrant DOS, THEOS, and PICK are registered trademarks of IBM Corp., Microsott Corp., Bell Labs., Digital
Research Inc.. Software Link Inc., and THEOS Software Corp. respectively.

Inquiry 185

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 329

Multi-User

10 Times Faster

Half the Cost of LANs

ALLOY'S PC-PLUS

Here's how to get the
job done — faster and
cheaper

Alloy's PC-PLUS is the perfect
solution for sharing data among
users. Faster, easier to install and
maintain, and cheaper than LANs.
Begin with a PC-SLAVE/16
expansion card containing an
8 MHz microprocessor which
operates at over two times- the
speed of an IBM® PC's processor.
PC-SLAVE/16 lets you read or
write hard disk data up to 10
times faster than most LANs at
half the cost of LANs!

How PC-PLUS expands
your PC's capabilities

Plug a PC-SLAVE/16 into your
PC. Add a terminal and Alloy's
Network Executive software. You

have the power of TWO PCs!
Sharing data, peripherals and
printers. Add more PC-SLAVE/16
cards and terminals as you need
to grow. And by adding Alloy's
PC-XBUS and PC-QICSTOR,
up to 31 users can communicate
with the PC host and with each
other. That's total utilization of
your PC's capabilities and your
investment in software, hardware
and valuable time and data.

Speaking of investments

Because the workstations you add
are inexpensive terminals, the cost
of increasing your computing
capability is much less with
PC-PLUS than with the next best
thing. When you consider how
much more productive your office
would be if you added another PC,
choose PC-PLUS instead.

Alloy — your PC
Productivity Company

Alloy brings you more than net-
working. It brings you a complete
family of personal computer ex-
pansion products — from software
to hard disks. All to make your
PC more than a Personal Com-
puter. With PC-PLUS, you get a
Productivity Center plus all the
benefits of a Personal Computer.

Call Alloy today at (617)
875-6100 and raise your PC
to its highest power.

Computer Products, Inc.

Alloy Computer Products, Inc., 100 Pennsylvania Avenue, Framingham, Massachusetts 01701. (617) 875-6100, TWX: 710-346-0394
In Europe: Alloy Computer Products (Europe) Ltd., Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England. Tel: 0285-69571, Tlx: 43340

IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines, Inc.

330 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 15

Atari 520ST

TDI Modula-2/ST

TurboPower Utilities

MacLanguage Series

On Stage Pascal

Macintosh Fonts

Bernoulli Box

by Bruce Webster

ACCORDING
TO WEBSTER

Programming Tools
and the Atari 520ST

Bruce Webster is a consulting

editor for BYTE. He can be

contacted do BYTE, POB 1910,

Oretn, UT 84057.

F~ irst of all. I'd like to thank all who
have sent comments via BIX (BYTE
Information Exchange), Compu-
Serve, MCI Mail, the nets, and (oddly
enough) the U.S. Postal Service. Some of the
messages have been quite glowing; others
have been, er, hot. But I do appreciate them
all— it's nice to know that folks out there are
actually reading this column and that what
1 have to say is interesting enough to pro-
voke some response.

The most common request I get is to in-
clude some sort of "time stamp" in the col-
umn, so that it's clear up front when it is
being written. I've done that some in the
past, but apparently not consistently or
clearly enough. I am writing this in the sec-
ond half of October, long before you'll be
reading it. COMDEX/Fall is still more than
a month away, and rumors are just now
coalescing into firmer shapes about what
Apple will announce at its annual share-
holders' meeting in late January— which will
be an accomplished fact by the time this
sees print.

The Atari 520ST

In the October 1985 issue of BYTE, I spoke
highly of the Commodore Amiga. Those
comments were written in June, a few weeks
after having attended the Amiga devel-
opers' conference. Back then, 1 hoped to
have my hands on an Amiga within a month
or two to give a firsthand report. No such
luck. However, a few weeks ago, the system
that is seen as the Amiga's main rival did
show up: the Atari 520ST. Even as I type
this on my Compaq, the ST is running a
batch file, performing the linking needed to
create a runnable program. The system I
have to evaluate has the monochrome
monitor and two single-sided (360K-byte)
disk drives. Such a system lists for around
$1000, although off-the-shelf cost right now
would be at least $100 less. Here are some
of my first impressions.

First, physical appearance. The ST looks
like a home computer, with external com-

ponents (disk drives, monitor, etc.), lots of
thick cables, external power supplies, and
an overall design that doesn't allow stack-
ing. In fact, a market for ST cabinets will
probably appear quickly, just to reduce clut-
ter and allow a more vertical arrangement
of components. And a power strip or outlet
expander is a necessity: A two-drive ST with
monitor and printer requires five outlets (as
opposed to two for an equivalent Mac sys-
tem). Such a system will have three exter-
nal power-supply boxes, which (thank
heavens) have cables long enough to be
dropped out of sight behind a desk or
under a table. The ST itself is wide (about
20 inches); when you add a work area to
one side for a mouse, you find that you
need a lot of horizontal space to set the
machine up. For that matter, the whole sys-
tem takes up more room than any other
computer I have (Compaq, Mac, Apple He);
a custom cabinet of some sort would
definitely help out.

Using the ST is easy, especially if you've
used the Macintosh. The ST uses GEM
(from Digital Research) as its graphics sys-
tem on top of TOS (the operating system)
and GEM Desktop as its user interface on
top of GEM. GEM Desktop looks much like
the Mac's user interface— so much so, that
Digital Research just agreed to make some
changes to it to avoid a copyright-infringe-
ment suit from Apple. What effect that will
have on the ST (or, for that matter, the
Amiga, whose Intuition user interface is also
Mac-like), I don't know. Atari may have to
send out GEM Desktop updates, or it may
be able to ignore the whole issue for now.

Though GEM Desktop in its current incar-
nation looks a lot like the Mac interface, it
isn't nearly as powerful or intelligent. All
open windows must have the same format
(icon versus text; sorted by name, size, type,
date); windows are not automatically up-
dated as disks are ejected and inserted; to
change a filename, you must select its icon,
then select the Show Info option in the File

[continued)

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 331

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

Atari like Amiga , learned
many lessons from Apple's
problems with the Macintosh.

menu, then edit the filename in the resulting window; you
cannot recover files thrown into the trash can; and so on.
If you don't like the Mac's interface, you'll probably hate
GEM Desktop.

Some performance differences between the ST and Mac
user interfaces stand out immediately. First, the ST
(perhaps because of GEM) is somewhat less responsive
to mouse clicks. Often, I have to double-click a program
icon several times to get it to run; likewise, if 1 want to
resize a window, I have to point to the resizing box, click,
and wait until the dotted outline appears before moving
the mouse. Also, as mentioned, updating of windows (as
disks are popped in and out of the drives) is not auto-
matic. You have to specifically request it.

On the positive side, overall interface performance ap-
pears to be faster than on the Mac. Windows seem to pop
up faster, programs load more quickly and so on. Best
of all, once you've booted up, you can pop the system
disk out and forget about it. Unlike the Mac, the ST ap-
pears to load the entire operating system in and keep it
resident, so that you don't always need a system disk
mounted somewhere (or do a lot of disk swapping). Of
course, that means the operating system is chewing up
a pretty fair amount of RAM (random-access read/write
memory), especially since GEM and TOS are not in ROM
(read-only memory), as they were originally supposed to
be.

Okay, so far the first impressions haven't been too
positive. Well, they're getting better. Atari, like Amiga,
learned many lessons from Apple's problems with the
Mac. For example, the ST has a DB-2 5 "parallel" port, just
like the one on the IBM PC and clones, that uses the stan-
dard IBM printer cables to hook up to parallel printers.
It also has a standard DB-2 5 serial (RS-232C) port. Why
is this a smart move? Well, I unplugged my printer and
modem cables from the Compaq and replugged them into
the ST I selected the Print Screen function in the drop-
down Options menu, and the ST did a graphics dump of
the screen to the Epson RX-80 printer. I then selected the
VT52 Emulator desk accessory and was able to call BIX
via the Hayes Smartmodem 1200. No hassle, no setup (al-
though printer- and serial-port configuration programs
were there for me to use). Very, very nice.

Sheer graphics speed seems to be generally better on
the 520ST than on the Macintosh. I picked up and
modified a simple graphics benchmark off of ARPANET,
apparently written ^by Fons Rademakers at CERN in
Switzerland to compare the Mac with the Apollo worksta-
tions. The program draws several thousand lines of a fixed

length and (for each run) a fixed angle. A listing of the
program and complete results will be given next month
(so that Amiga times can be included). Generally speak-
ing, the Atari was quite a bit faster than the Mac. The Mac
was faster for true vertical lines, but even a slight skew
made the Mac almost 10 times slower than the Atari.
Similarly, the Mac was faster for almost-horizontal lines,
but as the lines became more slanted, the Mac slowed
down by a factor of 30, while the Atari's speed remained
relatively constant. Again, look for complete numbers and
other benchmarks next month.

As with all new nonclone computers, software for the
ST is currently sparse, so I haven't been able to do more
to try out the ST. The release of GEMDraw and GEMWrite
has been delayed because of the Apple agreement (Digital
Research has to make them look less like MacPaint and
MacWrite). As a result, Atari has released the freeware pro-
gram Neochrome, a nice color-oriented painting program
that I can't use on my monochrome monitor, and an ST
version of Atariwriter. Look for more comments here
about the ST as time goes on.

TDI MODULA-2/ST

The ST came with Atari's development system, which is
Digital Research's C compiler, linker, and 68000 assembler.
I tinkered around with it for a while, until I was rescued
by the arrival of a native-code Modula-2 compiler from
TDI Software Ltd.

TDI Modula-2 /ST is a well-done package. First, it comes
with a Mac-like program editor that uses both mouse/menu
and keyboard commands, so aficionados of both styles
will find it pleasing. The editor also has the best "jump
to compiler error" feature of any I've seen. When you com-
pile a module, the compiler doesn't stop at the first error
but goes through and finds all the errors. When you go
back to the editor, it automatically positions you at the
first error— shown in the text by @— and prints a message
at the bottom of the screen telling you what the error was.
You then hit F7 (or use a menu command) to jump to the
next error.

The compiler is moderately fast and easy to use. If it
can't find the necessary .SYM files, it stops and lets you
look on other disks or within folders for the appropriate
file. As mentioned above, it finds all errors, instead of stop-
ping at the first one, and produces an error file, < file-
name >. ERR, which is pretty much worthless by itself, but
which the editor uses as described above.

The linker works much the same as the compiler does;
that is, if it can't find the necessary file, it brings up a stan-
dard GEM file-selection box and lets you go looking for
it. Unfortunately, this is another area where GEM suffers
in comparison to the Mac: It is tedious to look at another
disk drive (you have to go up and edit a filename pattern).
Things are further complicated by the fact that folders are
true subdirectories, so if you use them to store all your
.LNK or .SYM files (of which there are many), the com-

[continued)

332 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

AW

WHAT THE HECK!

ProDesign II

The Easy to Use CAD System!

ProDesign II is one of the most advanced GAD packages available
•for microcomputers. We think it's absolutely the easiest to use.
With competitive CAD systems priced at $ 1500 to $2500, we were
posed with the problem of setting our price.
ProDesign II works a wide, variety of digitizers and mouse
devices. It works with nearly any plotter or printer available for
the IBM PC. ProDesign n can produce plotter quality drawings
on ordinary dot matrix printers - a feature found exclusively on
ProDesign IL ProDesign II utilizes a virtual screen 4 times the
size of the physical screen to make it practical to produce draw-
ings on a normal resolution IBM monitor. ProDesign II is truly
an outstanding CAD package for the IBM PC and compatibles.
The question wb had to answer was: Even though we had abetter
product, should we price it higher than the other CAD systems
on the market?

We did market studies and calculations. We consulted with
experts. We drew charts and graphs. We used the finest spread-
sheet programs money could buy. When it came right down to it,
we still didn't knowwhat to sell ProDesign n for. $2995? $2495?
$1995? We even considered $995.

Then, in the great American tradition, we said, "AW . . .WHAT
THE HECK' Ijet's see the other guys beat this price!" ProDesign
II costs $299. At that price, you can't go wrong!

AW. . .WHAT THE HECK!

1299.95

~^L

A

j^ 1 ^ r&Z—j^ \-

r R^T = in 1 1 ii r- r

n.

SJrrZ , 11 II TTL.L

mm 1 , J

— / mm „ ,„«*,„.».

,

t FI , — —

THE SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY

American Small Business Computers

118 South Mill

Pryor, Oklahoma 74361

918/825-4844

Bl BOMBER

THIS DRAWING WAS PRINTED ON AN

EPSON RX-B9 DOT MATRIX PRINTER.

RESOLUTION IS .BBS" -

MORE THAN * MILLION DOTS'

BETTER THAN MAN* PLOTTERS'

Why should you get ProDesign II? Four simple reasons:

1 . ProDesign II is easy to use. You won't have to spend
weeks learning simple functions.

2. ProDesign II works with the hardware YOU own.
ProDesign II supports most printers and plotters
available for the IBM PC, as well as a wide variety
of digitizers and mouse devices.

3. ProDesign II can produce plotter quality output
on oTxiLnary dot matrix printers. (The Bl Bomber
above was printed on an Epson RX-80.)

4. ProDesign II is priced 70% to 80% below competitive
products'

What do you need to run ProDesign II? An IBM PC or compatible
with 512K RAM and graphics capability.
How do you get ProDesign II? See your local computer dealer
or contact us.

ProDesign II - The Easy to Use CAD System!

Inquiry 20

TOTALCONT

with LMI FORTH

^.•^,-.-;;

piter 1|

For Programming Professionals:

an expanding family of
compatible, high-performance,
Forth- 8 3 Standard compilers
for microcomputers

For Development:

Interactive Forth-83 Interpreter/Compilers

• 16-bit and 32-bit implementations

• Full screen editor and assembler

• Uses standard operating system files

• 400 page manual written in plain English

• Options include software floating point, arithmetic
coprocessor support, symbolic debugger, native code
compilers, and graphics support

For Applications: Forth-83 Metacompiler

• Unique table-driven multi-pass Forth compiler

• Compiles compact ROMable or disk-based applications

• Excellent error handling

• Produces headerless code, compiles from intermediate
states, and performs conditional compilation

• Cross-compiles to 8080, Z-80, 8086, 68000, and 6502

• No license fee or royalty for compiled applications

Support Services for registered users:

• Technical Assistance Hotline

• Periodic newsletters and low-cost updates

• Bulletin Board System

Call or write lor detailed product Information
and prices. Consulting and Educational Services
available by special arrangement.

wn

Laboratory Microsystems Incorporated

Post Office Box 10430, Marina del Rey, CA 90295
Phone credit card orders to: (213) 306-7412

Overseas Distributors.

Germany: Forth-Systeme Angelika Flesch, D-7820 Titisee-Neustadt
UK: System Science Ltd., London EC1A 9JX
France: Micro-Sigma S.A.R.L., 75008 Paris
Japan: Southern Pacific Ltd., Yokohama 220
Australia: Wave-onic Associates, 6107 Wilson, W.A.

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

piler or linker can't "see" them unless it happens to be
in the folder as well. TDI should consider modifying the
compiler and linker to allow a default folder to be
specified; otherwise, the window becomes crowded with
all the files that Modula-2 needs and produces.

The resulting .PGM file is true 68000 machine-language
code and acts like any other double-clickable application.
Lack of time has kept me from running a full set of bench-
marks; look for them in a future column, when I can bench
the Mac and the Amiga as well. But the few programs I
have written run quickly, so there probably isn't much dif-
ference in speed between TDI Modula-2/ST and, say, the
Digital Research C compiler that developers are using. If
you prefer Modula-2 over C, you should seriously consider
getting this product.

Product of the Month:
TurboPower Utilities

Every now and then, you run across a product that is well-
done, reasonably priced, and a must buy for someone
with the proper interests. TUrbo Pascal from Borland In-
ternational is a classic example of that selling more than
400,000 copies in a marketplace that had been estimated
as having only 30,000 potential buyers. Now, for all those
TUrbo Pascal owners comes a follow-up must-have pack-
age: TUrboPower Programmer's Utilities from TUrboPower
Software. This package costs just $55 and comes with one
disk and a 140-page manual. It requires TUrbo Pascal 2.0
or later, PC-DOS 2.x or 3.0, at least 96K bytes (though the
more RAM, the better), and a high degree of IBM com-
patibility (my Compaq portable seems to work fine).

The first thing that impresses you about TUrboPower is
the number of programs in the package: nine. What im-
presses you next is that this is not just one or two useful
utilities with some "junk" programs thrown in; all nine pro-
grams are useful, and a few are almost worth the price
of the package by themselves.

Four of the programs are specific to TUrbo Pascal. The
Pascal Formatter (PF) tries to clean up your program and
put it in some sort of standard (by your definition) for-
mat. It can change reserved words to uppercase, lower-
case, or first letter capitalized; ditto for standard ID words.
It will automatically indent control structures some
number of spaces (user-defined) and will left- or right-
justify comments. I didn't find this program too useful on
my own code (which I carefully format), but it's great for
cleaning up some of the strangely formatted (such as
all-uppercase-and-left-justified) TUrbo Pascal source code
that is in the public domain.

The Pascal Structure Analyzer (PSA) reads through your
source code (which must be able to compile without
errors) and gives you the following information:

• A complete cross-reference of all variables, showing the
procedures and functions in which they're used and where
they're modified. This gives you valuable information on

{continued)

334 B Y T E • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 188

MAKE THE CONNECTION

Our Connection systems will solve your problem
of trying to read and write diskettes or tapes from
almost any computer system using your PC.

The Diskette Connection is a hardware system
that enables the IBM PC or compatible to read and
write most 8 inch, S l U inch, or d> l h inch diskettes.

With our File Connection software programs you
can transfer data files between most computer
systems, including CP/M, DEC, Honeywell, Univac,
IBM 3740, S/l, S/3, S/23, S/32, S/34, S/36, and S/38.

Our Word and Typesetting Connection programs
use IBM standard Document Content Architecture
(DCA-RFT) to transfer document files between
most word processing and typesetting systems,
including Compugraphic MCS, CPT, Displaywriter,
OS/6, Multiset, NBI, Quadex, Xerox, and Wang.

Our Tape Connection system will read and
write IBM or ANSI standard Vi inch 1600 BPI
magnetic tape. A full size 2400 foot tape can
store a 45 MByte file and be written in 6 minutes.

Since 1982, we have supplied thousands of
systems to customers around the world, including
IBM, NASA, AT&T, Kodak, and General Motors.

Our specialty is conversion systems and we can
provide a solution to your problem. Call us today
to discuss your requirements.

This ad is one of a series featuring NASA missions.
For a free poster, send us your written request.

Box 1970 Flagstaff, AZ 86002
(602) 774-5187 Telex 705609

Inquiry 13 7 for End-Users.
Inquiry 138 for DEALERS ONLY.

FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING

TM

$249

Little Board

The World's Least Expensive CP/M Engine

CP/M 2*2

INCLUDED

• 4 MHz ZBO A CPU, 64K RAM, ZBO A
CTC, 4-32K EPROM

• Mini/Micro Floppy Controller
(1-4 Drives, Single/Double Density,
1-2 sided 40/80 track)

• 2 RS232C Serial Ports (75-9600 baud
& 75-38, 400 baud), 1 Centronics
Printer Port

• Power Requirement: +5VDC at .75A;
+12VDC at .05 A / On board -12V
converter

• Only 5.75 x 7.75 inches, mounts
directly to a 5-1 /4" disk drive

• Comprehensive Software Included:
• Enhanced CP/M 2,2 operating

system with ZCPR3

• Read/write/format dozens of
floppy formats (IBM PC-DOS,
KAYPRO, OSBORNE, MORROW...)

• Menu-based system customization

• Operator-friendly MENU shell
• OPTIONS:

• Source Code

• TurboDOS

• ZRDOS

• Hard disk expansion to 60
megabytes

• SCSI/PLUS'" multi-master I/O
expansion bus

• Local Area Network

• STD Bus Adapter

TM

BOOKSHELF

Fast, Compact, High Quality, Easy-to-use CP/M System

Sqxiqs 100

• Ready-to-use professional CP/M
computer system

• Works with any RS232C ASCII
terminal (not included)

• Network available

• Compact 7.3 x 6.5 x 10.5 inches,

1 2.5 pounds, all-metal construction

• Powerful and Versatile:

• Based on Little Board
single-board computer

• One or two 400 or 800 KB floppy
drives

• 1 0-MB internal hard disk drive
option

Priced from

$895.00

10MB System

Only $1645.00

• Comprehensive Software Included:

• Enhanced CP/M operating system
with ZCPR3

• Word processing, spreadsheet,
relational database, spelling
checker, and data encrypt/
decrypt (T/MAKER III™)

• Operator-friendly shells; Menu,
Friendly 1 "

• Read/write and format dozens of
floppy formats (IBM PC-DOS,
KAYPRO, OSBORNE, MORROW...)

• Menu-based system customization

DISTRIBUTORS

ARGENTINA: FACTORIAL, S A, (1) 41-0018,
TLX 22408 BELGIUM: CEN1RE
ELECrRONIQUE LEMPEREUR, (041) 23-4541,
TI.X 42621 CANADA: DYNACOMP
COMPUTER SYSTEMS LTD., (604) 872-7737
ENGLAND: QUANT SYSTEMS,
(01) 253-8423, TLX 946240 REF:19003131
FRANCE: EGAL+, (1) 502-1800, TLX 620893
SPAIN: XENIOS INFORMATICA, 593-0822,
TLX 50364 AUSTRALIA: ASP

MICROCOMPUTERS, (613) 500-0628
BRAZIL: CNC-DATA LEADER LTDA.,
(41) 262-2262, TLX 041-6364 DENMARK:
DAN81T, (03) 66-20-20, TLX 43558
FINLAND: SYMMETRIC OY, (0) 585-322,
TLX 121394 ISRAEL: ALPHA TERMINALS,
LTD., (3) 49-16 95, TLX 341667 SWEDEN:
AB AKTA, (08) 54-20-20, TLX 13702 USA:
CONTACT AMPRO COMPUTERS INC.,
TEL: (415) 962-0230TELEX: 4940302

IBM*, IBM Corp.; Z80A®, ZH03, Inc.; CP/M®,
Disital Research; ZCPR3'" & ZRDOS™,
Echelon, Inc.; Turbo DOS®, Software 2000,
Inc.; T/MAKER III"', T/Maker Co.
COMPUTERS. INCDRPDRATED

X;67 East Evelyn Ave. . Mountain View, CA94041 . (41 5)962-0230 . TELEX 4940302 ^

Inquiry 2 1 for Little Board.
336 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986 Inquiry 22 for BOOKSHELF;

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

just where those variables are being used.

• Warnings for variables that are used before they are ini-
tialized. This is crucial in Tlirbo Pascal, which does not pre-
initialize variables.

• Warnings for variables that are declared but never us^d.
This is usually innocuous— just some extra variables that
are no longer needed— but sometimes it points out things
you're forgetting to do.

• Warnings for variables that are declared and initialized
but never referenced. In other words, these variables are
set to some value, but that value is never needed by any-
thing else (assignment statement, procedure/function call,
output routine, etc.). Like the previous warning, this may
point out what you're forgetting to do.

• Warnings for variables that are modified at a scope level
below that of their declaration (two levels down for global
variables). When this happens, you may be generating an
unexpected side effect.

• Warnings for pass-by-value parameters modified within
their function or procedure. This is a sign that you might
have meant to declare the parameters as pass-by-address
(VAR).

• Warnings for identifiers that match standard Tlirbo Pascal
identifiers, screening out the use of that identifier. For ex-
ample, if you declare a variable called Val, you disable the
Tlirbo built-in procedure Val within the scope of that
variable.

• A program hierarchy that shows you a kind of tree of
subroutine calls, letting you see exactly how nested your
procedure and function calls are.

Those of you with experience in programming can see
just how useful this one program could be in cleaning up
code and tracking down bugs. What's really nice is that
PSA has an interactive mode that lets you quickly select
different options and selectively examine the resulting lists.
I've run PSA on several source files of varying age and
size, and I've been pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised
by some things I've discovered.

The last two Tlirbo-specific programs help you analyze
how your program performs. The Pascal Execution Pro-
filer (PEP) uses a resident program and special subroutines
added to your source code to produce a histogram show-
ing how much time is being spent in each area of your
program, shown as a range of program-counter addresses.
You can then reanalyze using a subrange of addresses.
Once you know where your program is spending its time,
you can use the Find run-time error command in the com-
piler Option menu with Tlirbo Pascal to find the ap-
propriate area in your source code. PEP is marvelous for
locating where your program is using all its time, so that
you can optimize those portions to improve overall
performance.

The second analyzer, the Pascal Execution Timer (PET),
performs a related, if not exactly equivalent, function. Like
PEP, PET uses a resident program and modifications to

{continued)

. ,

■MA

B

Crisp, clean, hardcopy graphics make dramatic im-
pressions. Now, with Houston Instrument's PC Plotter,
you have an affordable way to link the power of
graphics to your personal computer. The PC Plotter
produces quality graphics at a price you won't mind
paying. It allows you to produce vibrant line, bar, and
pie charts using eight different colors on either paper
or overhead transparencies. And you can create either
QVi" x 11" or 11" x 17" graphics.

Whether you're a computer wizard or novice, the
PC Plotter is simple to operate and can be used with
virtually any computer on the market today. Plus, your
graphics software choices are unlimited. Houston
Instrument products are supported by a versatile
collection of more than 250 graphics software packages.

For example, just take a look at the above photo and
you'll see plots created by PFS:® Graph, Lotus®
l-2-3/ M Peachtree Business Graphics System,™ Design
Intelligence, 11 "' Energraphics,™ and Smart Spreadsheet
with Graphics.

Make the most out of owning an IBM,® Apple® or
other personal computer. Give it a PC Plotter. . .and
give your presentations the visual advantage you need
to win in business.

Visit your authorized Houston Instrument dealer or
local computer store today and ask for a demonstra-
tion of the PC Plotter. For more information, call us at
800-531-5205. Texas residents may phone (512) 835-0900.
Houston Instrument products are designed, marketed, and
manufactured in Austin, Texas.

instrument

Inquiry 159

4P019

Inquiry 209

What use is 68000 power
if you can'tgetat it?

You can with the U-MAN!

Look at these languages and tools available for the
programmable 68000 power U-MAN Series 1000 supermicro

UCSD p-system with text
editor, filer, many utilities.

• PASCAL
•FORTRAN 77

• BASIC

• Advanced Developers
Tool Kit including 68000
Assembler

CP/M68Kwith editor,
many utilities, 68000
Assembler.

• 'C

• CBASIC

• PASCAL M T Plus

• SVS FORTRAN

• Whitesmiths 'C

• SVS Basic Plus

• SVS Pascal

• Cambridge LISP

• PROLOG

• FORTH

• VED 68K program
editor

• XED screen editor

• 192KRAM
68000 (lOAAHz) ond 6809
Dual 800K floppies
Clock & timers
Two serial ports
Centronics port
Sound generator
Speech synthesiser
10 bit A/D
16 parallel I/O lines

Note thatall the CP/M68K
languages can use what-
ever RAM Is Installed —
unlike CP/M86 and
MS-DOS where the limit is
usually only 64K.

Keyboard and

4 siot expansion systerr

OEM

and

DEALER

INQUIRIES

WELCOMED.

MASTERBYTE

Computers of New York

19 W. 34th St.,

Suite 815

New York. NY 10001

(212) 564-2247

TWX: 9103801502

(MASTERBYTE)

mSIENfclTE

COMPUTERS OF NEW YORK

Automated Manufacturing
Exhibition and Conference

Textile Hall Convention Center
Greenville, South Carolina, USA
November 3-8, 1988

The future starts November
3, 1986. Be there as an ex-
hibitor as one of the South-
east's most comprehensive
automated manufacturing ex-
hibitions/ conferences unfolds.

AM86 will highlight an up-to-
date, all encompassing array
of state-of-the-art technology
available to key management.
R&D, engineering, purchas-
ing and the all-important users
from industiy and business.
Exhibits by as many as 300

companies will be comple-
mented by over 40 tech-
nical sessions presented by
leaders from industry and
academia.

Exhibits, as well as
technical sessions, will feature
robotics, metal working,
materials handling, CAD/CAM,
process control instrumenta-
tion, CNC, lasers, micropro-
cessing, fiber optics and many
other related fields.

Call today for complete
details.

(603) 239-2967
P.O. Box 5616
Greenville, SC 29606

Produced by The Consortium for Automated Manufacturing

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

your source code to do its job, which is twofold. First it
times (to within 200 microseconds) how long each pro-
cedure and function takes to execute. Second, it tells you
how often each procedure and function is called. Again,
this helps you pick apart your code and find places where
improvement is needed.

You would almost expect to pay $ 5 5 for any one of these
four programs; to get all four for that price is a great
bargain. But wait! That's not all! There are five more pro-
grams in this package: MS-DOS utilities to make your life
easier. I haven't used them enough to comment much, but
here's what they do.

Super Directory (SDIR): This is like DIR, but it is more
intelligent and versatile. It can sort by name, extension,
date, or size, in either ascending or descending order. It
can show hidden files and subdirectories, either in addi-
tion to or instead of other files; it will also show only those
files modified before or since a given date. Listing options
provided by SDIR let you decide how much information
is shown and let you automatically direct the listing to the
printer.

File Finder (ROOT): This will print a complete subdirec-
tory tree. In addition, it will search for and list a given file-
name (with wild cards) throughout all the subdirectories
on a given drive. Very useful for hard disks.

Command Repeater (REP): An amazing little utility that
will repeatedly execute any COM, .EXE, or .BAT file or
MS-DOS command, substituting as parameters text parsed
from an input file (which can include output piped from
a previous MS-DOS command).

Text File Difference Finder (DIFF): This is useful for find-
ing the differences between two text files. Though it's
geared toward Tlirbo Pascal source-code files, it can be
used with any text files. One of its more remarkable fea-
tures is its ability to create an EDLIN script to recreate
the old file from the new (modified) file.

Pattern Match and Replace (RPL): Another amazing pro-
gram that can massage text and turn it into something
quite different. One set of pattern files included turns out-
put from the DEBUG disassemble command into INLINE
code for Tlirbo Pascal.

There is one little problem with this package: Many of
the utilities are quite large. SDIR, for example, is more than
30K bytes in size. This can make things sticky for a floppy-
based system; if you've got a hard disk, though, you not
only have room for the utilities, you can very much use
them, especially SDIR, ROOT, and REP.

All things considered, the TUrboPower Programmer's
Utilities are very worthwhile. And not only can you get
this entire package for $55, but for a mere $45 more,
UirboPower Software will send you the TUrbo Pascal
source code for all these programs, allowing you to make
your own custom versions. If you buy both the executable
and source codes at the same time, the cost is only $95.
If this is not one of the all-time great software bargains,
I don't know what is. If you own TUrbo Pascal, you should

{continued)

338 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 16

A "PRICE- LINE" SCOOP!

THE REAL THING IN IBM COMPATIBLES!

^ _ ^^ m ^ a^ A IBM COMPATIBLE

R BYTE PC 750

XT keyboard, 256 K
memory, 2/360K floppy
disk drive, large XT frame
and power unit Monitor
not included.

ROBYTEAT

IBM COMPATIBLE

$2650

The most advanced
personal computer, 16/24-
bit microprocessor for
advanced speed, 51 2K
memory, expandable to 3
million bytes, enlarged 84-
key keyboard, 20MB fixed
disk drive, 1.2 meg floppy,
360K floppy. Monitor not
included.

ROBYTE AT base unit $ I950 each

SOFTWARE

WORD PROCESSING

WORDSTAR 2000 $265.00

WORDSTAR 2000 PLUS $315.00

WORDSTAR EASY $99.00

WORDPERFECT W/SPELLER $250.00

PERSONAL WORDPERFECT $95.00

MICROSOFT WORD $225.00

SPREADSHEETS & DATABASES

LOTUS 1-2-3 $299.00

SYMPHONY $429.00

SPELLING CHECKER $87.95

TEXT0UTLINER $87.95

SPOTLIGHT $44.95

DBASE III $365.00

FRAMEWORK $365.00

SUPERCALC $197.00

POWER BASE $199.00

R BASE 5000 $344.00

PERFECT CALC $125.00

MULTIPLAN $109.00

FINANCIAL SOFTWARE

HOME ACCOUNTANT $84.00

MONOGRAM DOLLARS & SENSE $99.00

MODEMS
HAYES

SMARTMODEM 300
SMARTMODEM 1200
SMARTMODEM 2400

MAXELL HI-DEN
MAXELL DS-DD
VERBATIM

DISKS

$129.00
$379.00
$614.00

$42,95
$19.95
$21.95

MONITORS

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

HX-12 HI RES $545,00

SR-12 W/DOUBLER $714.00

AMDEK

COLOR 300 $269.00

COLOR 300 RGB $359.00

COLOR 710 HI-RES $579.00

IBM

PROF. GRAPHICS M0N $969,00

ENHANCED GRAPHICS M0N $599.00

DISK DRIVES

SEAGATE

SEAGATE 20 MGB W/C0NT.
SEAGATE 30 MGB W/C0NT.
SEAGATE 42 MGB W/C0NT.
(37 M.S.)

IOMEGA
SINGLE 10 MEG HD
DUAL 10 MEG HD
CARTRIDGES

SHUGART

10 MEG HD W/C0NT.

GRAPHICS CARD
MULTIDISPLAYCD

PARADISE

$595.00

$895.00

$1250.00

$1799.00

$2495.00

$43.00

$431.00

GRAPHICS BDS

HERCULES

GRAPHIC CARDS
COLOR CARD

$289.00
$145.00

$272.00
$197.00

ROBYTE
MULTIFUNCTION CARD

SERIAL AND PARALLEL PORTS, 384K
EXPANDABLE, CLOCK/CALENDAR, GAME
OPTION PORT $95,00

SERIAL CARD $44.00

PARALLEL CARD $29,00

COLOR GRAPHICS CARD $74.00

MONO GRAPHICS CARD $94.00

I/O MULTIFUNCTION CARD $95.00

HARDWARE

AST

SIX PACK PLUS

AT ADVANTAGE CARD

$227.00
$359.00

STAR MICRONICS

PRINTERS

EPSON

FX-185

FX-85

LQ-1500

NLQ30
NL040
NLQ50

BROTHER
HR-25
HR-35
TWINWRITER

HEWLETT PACKARD
LASERJET
6-PEN PLOTTER
THINKJET

Call for prices on C.IT0H
DIABLO, NEC, APPLE, IBM

$475,00
$349.00
$899.00

$193.00
$269.00
$369.00

$519.00
$892.00
$913.00

$2275.00

$1450.00

$369.00

ORDER LINE 1-800-334-8989 IN CALIF. CALL 1-8 18-341 -9 193
OPEN 6 DAYS/WEEK, M0N.-SAT. 6 AM- 6 PM Pacific Std. Time

*No surcharge (or credit cards free express shipping on orders of $100.00. COD's accepted. 3% added for
insurance. No monitors computers, printers, paper included in express shipping. Prices subject to change without
notice. 3% discount reflected in pricesforVisaand MasterCard. Companypurchaseorders also accepted. + IBM isa
registered trademark Call for RMA# on all returns

.si-H&H-. J.

» -Price -Line
Computers Inc.

9710 Topanga Canyon Place, Chatsworth, CA 91311

Inquiry 261

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 339

Inquiry 96

RgTEgglegH DEALERS WELCOME!!

199% Haves comDatible 300/1200

• Auto dial, auto answer (Ions or pulse)

• 8 status indicators & switch selectable >

• Auto speed selection (0-300. 1200 bpsfl

• Speaker wrth volume control

• Aluminum case, w/adaplor

SEMI-ASSEMBLED

MODEM

KIT **

6 MONTH WARRANTY

Modem board completely assembled.
& guaranteed. 5 minutes assembly.

sno 1 ^

ALPHA CONCORD

MODEM

ONLY* $| 39

$129

Add 5%
Shipping Charge

MiHflUHH

NEW!! Make PC/XT/Compatible run 30% to 50% ^

faster 4.77/6.77 Mhz switchable. Easv to install. $29.95

BUILD YOUR PORTABLE XT/AT

XT PORTABLE $399

(Price includes only case, full size keyboard,

9" monitor, 130 watt power supply.)

(Frt mega/XT/AT m-board & standard cards.)

Replacement & 99% Compatible

AT COMPATIBLE
MOTHERBOARD

CONCORD Technology Ltd.

47 W. Broadway, Van., B.C. Canada V5Y 1P1
Ph. f604) 879-3555

$750

Bareboard SCall
Tested

board without IC

XT or APPL lie
MOTHERBOARD

$169 each

tested guaranteed
99?o compatible

Color card $70
Control card $45

FACTORY PRICES ON

AT/XT or He cases, cards,
keyboards (minimum 25) SCall

IBM PC AT performance!
PCjr price!

AMPRO Little Board/186 $419
•8 Mhz 16 Bit 80186 CPU
• 128 512K RAM; 1 MB
w add-on board
• 128K EPROM -2 Byte
Wide sockets
• 4 Drive floppy disk controller
• SCSI (SASI) hard disk interface
IBM compatible ROM-BIOS
■ Boots PC DOS 2.x. 3.x
• Two RS232 C serial ports

• Parallel printer port

• Expansion board w 512K RAM. 8087-2. Clock, 2 serial ports.
RS422 port

• AMPRO Little Board Plus $289

• Same as Little Board 186 except 4 Mhz Z80A (8 Bit) CPU.
64K RAM. 4 - 16K EPROM: w CP M 2.2. ZCPR3

• AMPRO Little Board (the original) $239

• Same as Little Board Plus except no SCSI. 4K EPROM;
w/CRM 2.2, ZCPR3

tic 25 different enclosures w'power supplies, cables, etc. from S99

tic Floppy Winchester drives from S89

tic XEBEC 4000 OWL 1/2 Ht 10Mb drive w integral controller S595

tic Terminals; Wyse, Qume, Kimtron from S395

tic Power supplies, cables, connectors in stock

Completetechnical support. Assembled systems available. Write or call for

free catalog. Most orders shipped same day.

VISA, MasterCard, Money Order, C.O.D. Checks allow two weeks.

Purchase orders and bids welcome. Prices F.O.B. Prairie View. IL.

IBMPC AT. PCjr. PC DOS are Irademarksof International Business Machines CorporaliOrv XEBEC OWL
is a trademark of XEBEC. Inc

3ISKS PLUS

15945 West Pope Blvd.
Prairie View, IL 60069
(312) 537-7888

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

own the TlirboPower Programmer's Utilities; that's all there
is to it.

PASCAL FOR THE MACINTOSH

As I have stated before, Apple has been either unable or
unwilling to produce a native-code Pascal compiler for the
Macintosh, even though it chose Pascal as the standard
development language for the Mac. This has merely
served to increase the frustration of Mac programmers
who have to work in one language (C, FORTH, LISP, as-
sembly language, etc.) and still understand enough about
Lisa Pascal to interpret the Inside Macintosh manual. And,
of course, it hasn't made things any easier for those who
write those compilers and interpreters.

Suddenly, two native-code Pascal compilers have ap-
peared: the MacLanguage Series Pascal compiler from
TML Systems and the On Stage Pascal compiler from Step-
Lively Software. Proving the maxim that great (or, at least,
desperate) minds think alike, both compilers claim the
following features: fast compilation; output is Macintosh
Development System-compatible and can be either ob-
ject or assembly-language source code; Lisa Pascal com-
patibility; full access to OS, TbolBox, AppleTklk, and Macin-
talk; and editor, resource compiler, and linker.

The main difference between the two seems to be price:
TML is offering its system for $100; Step-Lively is charg-
ing $400. Both are scheduled for release in late 1 98 5, so
it will be a few months before I can give a complete report.
I do, however, have a beta copy (version 0.7) of the TML
package; from the coding I've done so far, it appears to
live up to its claims, although the Pascal implementation
is a little more sparse than most.

FONTS FOR THE MAC

Shortly after the Macintosh came out, a flood of font
packages appeared on the market, matched by a similar
flood of public-domain fonts. Some were worthwhile, some
were interesting, but most weren't much better than those
Apple released. And the flood has dropped to a slow drip.

Recently, though, a disk came in the mail with two useful
fonts: Boston, designed by Charles Maurer, and Interna-
tional, designed by Paul Rapoport. Maurer says he de-
signed Boston to make the Mac plus Imagewriter com-
pete with his IBM Selectric typewriter. He did well; Boston
printed out in high-quality mode is clean, very legible, and
(dare I say it) looks almost like the ever-worshiped letter-
quality output that businesses demand. I've switched to
it for all my correspondence; the 9-point font is readable
and lets me get more text on a one-page letter than the
usual 10- and 12-point fonts.

Paul Rapoport also had a goal in mind when he designed
International. With a background in linguistics, Rapoport
bought the Mac thinking that he could use it to prepare
manuscripts involving different languages. However, he
found that most of the fonts were quite limited in their
international letters and diacritical marks. So he designed

[continued)

340 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 120

McGraw-Hill Bookstore

The Professionals' Information Center

>Q{iS

Designed at the initiative
and under the auspices of
the U.S. Department of De-
fense, ADA replaces the
over 450 programming
languages once used
by DOD programmers.
Adopted as an ANSI
standard.

Compare with other languages - what are the
strengths and weaknesses?

1. Comparing and Assessing Programming Languages
-ADA, C, and Pascal

by Feuer and Gehani. Introduces and compares each language; assesses each
individually. Criticism and some alternative designs; methodology for comparing
and assessing. 256 pp. $21 .95 paper

Why you need ADA

2. ADA: Concurrent Programming

by Narain Gehani. ADA provides high-level concurrent programming facilities based
on the rendezvous concept; how to use them effectively in writing concurrent
programs. 272 pp. $28.95 paper

Getting acquainted with ADA

3. ADA: An Advanced Introduction

by Narain Gehani. A quick intro to conventional aspects and an in-
depth analysis of the novel aspects of ADA including encapsulation,
concurrency, generic facilities, exception handling, and others. 352
pp. $24.95 paper

Building a long-term relationship

4. ADA: An Advanced Introduction Including
Reference Manual for the ADA Programming
Language

by Narain Gehani. Written for those with knowledge of at least one
programming language, it focuses on the novel aspects of ADA and
contains many realistic and non-trivial examples. Programs tested.
Differences from other languages noted. 672 pp. $32.95 cloth

Inquiry 214

These books published
by Prentice-Hall

Please print clearly.

McGraw-Hill Bookstore

1221 Ave. of the Americas, N.Y, N.Y 10020

Send me (circle) book #12 3 4

No. copies MB2

Check, money order or credit card only
Visa Amer Exp Master Chg

Acct. No Expires.

m

Name.

Address.

City_

_ State.

_Zip_

Add applicable sales tax, plus $2.50 postage and handling.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 341

Inquiry 5

CONVERT A $25 PHONE INTO

THE MOST SOPHISTICATED

TELEPHONE SYSTEM

l'"V' c l Ex-tensions

im iii a 11 ii m m m zr

In

Row

Alexis 308

■ BIBB

Mi B2T

[— 2.0'

?r Cord

INSTALLATION

INTERFACES UP TO 5 OUTSIDE LINES WITH 12 TELEPHONES
ALEXIS, THE PHONE SYSTEM FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

• It speaks to you

• It's user programmable

• It records all phone calls & numbers dialed

• Restricts any number or prefix such as 411, 976

• Alexis uses standard touchtone telephones offering access to all
features and lines

• A caller can retrieve information from the PC's diskette using his
phones keypad

Alexis does not need a PC, but interfaced with one,
will open a whole new world without interfering with
the PCs operation. ^Sb.

^y Adax, Inc.

(404) 662-1564 Teiex: 707355 OASIS

6961 Peochtree Industrial Boulevard
Norcross. Georala 30071
INTELLIGENT COMMUNICATIONS FOR ENTERPRISING BUSINESSES

COMPETITIVE EDGE

631 S. Main Street, Plymouth, Ml 48170 — 313^51-0665

Compupro®, LOMAS, EARTH, TELETEK
S-100 CIRCUIT BOARDS

CompuPro286CPU

S671.

Lomas286BMHZ

SB21.

ColorMaglc32K S556.

CompuProSPUZ'-BMHZ

296.

LomasB086

420.

Lomas 10MHz B0B6 520.

CompuPro608S/BB"

263.

Lomas OctaporT" 8 Serial

320.

Lomas 4 serial 200,

CompuProDlskIA'"

371.

LomasLDP'"72

206.

Lomas Color Magic"* 16K 476.

CompuPro Disk 3'"

446.

Lomas256KDram

358.

Lomas MSDOS"* 2,11 200.

CompuPro Ram 22"

446.

Lomas512KDram

448.

CompuPro MDriveH*512K 446.

CompuPro Ram 23 '"

188.

LomasRam67'"

599.

CompuPro l/03Bport 371.

CompuProRam23128

263.

LomasHazitair

244.

Teletek SBC 16MHz 128 375.

CompuPro CPU Z"

189.

Thunder 186 '"

895.

Turbodos* for Teletek 650.

CompuPro CCP/M«816*

300.

Lomas CCP/M«86 '"

280.

Lomas 2 Megabyte

System Support One'"

263.

CompuPro I/O 4

263.

Ram-(204BK) just SB21

TeletekHD/

375.

Systemaster 11*

795.

Earth Turbomaster S795

Teletek Systemaster*

495.

I.T.1024x1024Brd S995

Illuminated Technology 1024x1 024 Board for Autocad™ $995.
Earth Computer TURBO SLAVE 1 8MHz 128K$395.

Turbo Slave I runs with Teletek, North Star Horizon, Advanced Digital and Others under Turbodos'"

SYSTEMS

CompuPro B5/B8,256K,CDOS, SS1.I/0 4.2-96TPI DRS, 15 Slot

CompuPro B5/BB.256K,CDOS. 881,1/0 4.1-96TPI.20MB. 15 Slot

CompuPro 286, SPUZ, 40MB, SSI, V 3. CDOS, 15 Slot, 30 amp P/S

266, 1024K. 20MB, AutoCad 2 System — Ready to Run

Lomas 286.1024K.20MB HD,1-5".CDOS, 6 SERIAL, 2 Par, 15 Slot

Lomas Thunder 186, 256K. 20 MB HD, 1-5", CDOS, 4 Slot

Teletek BMHz Master, 4-8MHz 12BK SLVS, 1-5", 20 MB HD, TDOS

AT CLONE 286, FAST 20 MB HD, enhanced 512K

AT CLONE, 10MHz 286. 1024K, FAST ZOMB, mono card

$3095
S4295
S6995
SB395
S4995
$2895
$4995
$2995
$3695

UPGRADE YOUR IBM* PC'"II
GRAPHIC BOARDS

Everex Edge S279

Hercules'" Color Card $159

TecmarGraphlcsMaster $449
EnhancedGraphlcsClona,256K $475

PBSColorCardw/parallel S125

Hercules Compatible MONO $119
FLOPPY DRIVES

Mitsubishi 4854.AT St75

Mitsubishi96TPI $125

5 DSDDCoorDskelles S 21

ALL PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE AND STOCK ON HAND

CompuPro Is a Registered Trademark of Vlasyn, CPU Z, Disk 1A, Disk 3, Inter lacer 3, Intertacer 4„ CPU 286, CPU 808S88,
System Support 1, MDRIVE-H, Rem 22. Ram 23 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vlasyn. CP/M 2.2, CCP M, are
registered trademarks of Digital Research Inc. MSDOS Is a registered trademark ol Microsoft, Systemaster & Syslemaster II are
registered trademarks of Teletek Enterprises. Turbodos Is a registered trademark ol Software 2000. Hercules Is e trademark ol
Hercules, IBM & AT are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines. AutoCad 2 Is a registered
trademark ol AutoDesk, Inc.

MONITORS

Amdex310A

$159

Princeton Max 12 Amber

$169

PrlncetonColorHR-12

$459

Princeton ColorSR-12

$649

286 ACCELERATOR

TurboAccel-286SMHZ

$895

MULTI-FUNCTION BOARDS

PC-PBS7PackQK

$119

PC-PBS7Pack384K

$147

ATMF3000D.'S,3MBW,'DK

S275

HARD DRIVE KITS

PC 10MB PC
PC21MBPC
AT21MBATFAST
AT 36MB AT
AT70MBAT
AT80MBAT
AT 11 9MB AT
PCFIpyConUoller
AT SEPwPOR.

$495
$595
$795
$1295
$2295
$3295
$3595

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

Items Discussed

Atari 520ST $799

Atari Corporation
1196 Borregas Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408) 745-2000

Boston Font $10.50 & blank disk

Charles E. Maurer

31 Forsyth Ave. South

Hamilton. Ontario L8S 2A4. Canada

International Font $10 licensing fee

Dr. Paul Rapoport

Department of Music

McMaster University

1280 Main St. West

Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M2. Canada

Mac Bernoulli Box Price unavailable

AppleTalk Disk Server ,

Iomega Corporation
1821 West 4000 South
Roy, UT 84067
(801) 773-9452

MacLanguage Series Pascal Compiler ,

TML Systems
POB 361626
Melbourne. FL 32936
(305) 242-1873

On Stage Pascal Compiler .

Step-Lively Software
622 Watervliet-Shaker Rd.
Latham. NY 12110
(518) 785-7214

. Price unavailable

$99.95

$399.95

TDI MODULA-2/ST .
TDI Software Ltd.
10410 Markison Rd.
Dallas, TX 75238
(214) 340-4942

TurboPower Programmers Utilities

programs only

programs & source code

TurboPower Software

478 West Hamilton Ave., Suite 196

Campbell. CA 95008

(408) 378-3672

$69.95

.$55
$95

a special font that handles more than 50 languages, in-
cluding Germanic, Romance, Gaelic, East European, and
many other language families. It can also handle the
Romanized version of many non-Roman languages. The
font contains the Roman alphabet, 16 special letters (both

[continued)

342 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 75

ACRQ

^jn

■

Klone for $ 49 95

The Closer You Look, the Better We Look!

1 ' m

*m

IPS

MIRROR is the mirror image of Crosstalk XVI, the industry standard in data communications software for small business computers. MIRROR'S design
closely reflects Crosstalk XVI's menus, commands and features. In fact, if you have used Crosstalk XVI before, you will feel right at home with MIRROR.
The one thing you will not find reflected in MIRROR is Crosstalk XVI's $195.00 price. Because we control the reflection, MIRROR costs only $49.95.

If you are new to data communications, it makes sense to go with the industry standard in data communications software, but why pay the industry
standard price. MIRROR lets you have the industry standard at 1/4 the price. If you or your company have already standardized on Crosstalk XVI, then
consider MIRROR for future purchases and upgrades, you'll realize significant savings, without sacrificing on quality, standardization or features.

MIRROR even gives you features that Crosstalk XVI doesn't provide, such ^k-

as background operation which lets MIRROR handle your communica- r^"
tions while you are using other productivity packages. MIRROR includes
a built-in Wordstar-like text editor, and many file transfer protocols such as:
XMODEM, XMODEM MULTI-FILE. KERMIT, HAYES and of course. CROSSTALK.

Yes, Please send me .

copy(ies) of MIRROR at

$49.95. plus S5.00 postage /handling
($8.00 for COD orders) ea.

With. SoftKlone's 60-Day money back guarantee, you can't lose. Pick-
up the phone and dial our toll-free number, or fill-out the coupon.

MIRROR,

m HESHbl

7b Order Call Toll-Free-

i?<rVH I

VEST

&ICOD

DISTRIBUTING CORR

The Age of KloneWare Has Arrived

1210 East Park Avenue
Tallahassee, Florida 32301

National: California:

1-800-538-8157 1-800-672-3470

Ext. 840 Ext. 848

For Information Call: 1-904-878-8564

MIRROR is available for the IBM PC/ XT/ AT and compatibles.

Payment Method:

[ ] VISA ( ) MC ( ) COD ( ) Check/Money Order

Credit Card *:

Card Expiration Date: _
Sub-Total

-I-

(Fl residents must add
6% sales tax)

Shipping'Handling

Amount Enclosed:

Purchase Order and site
license inquiries please
call (904) 878-8564.

NOT COPY
PROTECTED!

Shipping Address: .

City:

Zip Code:

Signature;

. State: .

. Telephone -:.

Mail Coupon To. SoftKlone, 1210 East Park Avenue, Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Inquiry 95

E=^=

._ PC/XT/AT
IN TURBO
TOP OF THE LINE IBM PC
COMPATIBLE COMPUTER

MOTHERBOARD

NOVA'S PC/XT

TURBO ON BOARD

UP TO

640K DUAL SPEED (4.77
MHZ, 8 MHZ), keyboard
software selectable, 8 slots,
external reset $125.00 (in
large OEM quantity)

NOVA'S AT 286
DUAL SPEED (6 MHZ, 8 MHZ)

keyboard software selectable, battery on board and
memory expandable up to 1 MB. 8 slots, external reset
switch power good detection circuit which guarantees
that the power supply and reset is working properly, (op-
tional on board: 2 serial / 1 parallel) includes legal ROM
BIOS $650.00 (in large OEM quantity)

SYSTEM

NOVA'S PC/XT
BARE BONE

64 K includes keyboard, 130W
power supply, 8 slots up to
640K on mother board and
case $510.00

NOVA'S PC/XT
2 DRIVE SYSTEM

8 slot mother board w/256K
130W power supply and two half
ht. TEAC floppy drives and case
$795.00

NOVAS AT 286
BARE BONE

1 MB RAM memory, 1.2 M drive, key-
board, 195W power supply, case, HD/FD
controller $1,995.00

NOVA'S XT
2 DRIVE SYSTEM

8 slots mother board w/256K, 130W
power supply, two half ht. TEAC drives,
one 10MB hard disk, DTC controller card
and case $1,295,00

NOVAS AT 286
ENHANCED MODEL

1 MB RAM memory, 1.2 M drive, 20 MB
hard disk, 195W power supply, HD/FD
controller, S/P card $2,795.00

100% hardware and software compatible ENHANCED GRAPHIC ADAPTER $450.00
640 x 350 enhanced color mode, 16 color in 640 x 200 resolution
720 x 350 in monochrome mode, total of 256K bytes of memory
Plus Printer Port (can select LPT1 to LPT3)

OEM, WHOLESALER, RETAILER, END USER ARE WELCOME

*IBM IS TRADEMARK OF INTERNATIONAL. BUSINESS MACHINES CORP.

COMPUTRADE COMPANY

780 Trimble Road, Suite 605, San Jose, CA 95131
Tel: (408) 946-2442 Telex: 171605

Howa
software engineer

got to captain

the lunar landing
module.

The Computer Museum is a lot more than a collection of
the most famous machines in the history of information
processing, it's also a lot of fun.

For more information, orto become a Museum Member,
write The Computer Museum, or call (617) 423-6758.

The Computer Museum

B Q S T O N

There's something in it for everyone
300 Congress Street, Boston, MA 02210

ACCORDING TO WEBSTER

lowercase and uppercase versions), and 28 diacriticals (for
both lowercase and uppercase). On top of that, Interna-
tional contains 5 musical and 14 arithmetic symbols.
Whew.

Both men have secured copyrights on their fonts and
have put them out as shareware. Each designer requests
a nominal licensing fee if you like and use his font. Each
font is easily worth the money, more so than most fonts
I've seen. Their addresses are given in the "Items Dis-
cussed" box.

Updates

Some months back, I spoke highly of the Mac Bernoulli
Box from Iomega. That unit is still around; it's been used
constantly over the last nine months. During that time, I
have not had a single glitch or lost file; one problem that
I mentioned turned out to be due to a faulty power sup-
ply on the Macintosh, which has since been replaced.
Since that Bernoulli Box was one of the first ones, its un-
blemished record is even more impressive.

In that column, I mentioned that Iomega was planning
to release a slave drive for the B-Box. As it turns out, that
is not the case. Instead, Iomega chose to pass through
the RS-422 signals so that you can hook up the B-Box to
the printer port and then hook up your Imagewriter to
the B-Box. To help solve the backup problem, Iomega is
developing a cartridge-to-cartridge backup program (not
unlike the Mac's single-drive DiskCopy program), which
should be released by the time you read this. Iomega also
has a 20-megabyte Appl^lk Disk Server that has two
10-megabyte half -height 8-inch Bernoulli drives; more on
this in a future column.

MaclUtor, a magazine geared toward programming the
Macintosh, was also mentioned here a few months back,
and I described it in glowing terms. The Mac is such a com-
plex machine that actual working code or code fragments
are the best aid in learning to program it. MaclUtor is full
of examples in a variety of languages (C, Pascal, BASIC,
LISP, FORTH, assembly language, FORTRAN, etc.), all with
text describing how and why they work. Unfortunately,
MaclUtor's address was accidentally left out of the column,
and more letters have come asking for that address than
on any other topic, including a few from Europe and one
from Israel. Contact MaflUtor at POB 846, Placentia, CA
92670. (714) 993-9939.

Annual subscriptions are $24 ($30 in Canada and
Mexico and $36 overseas). Back issues are available for
$3 each; the October 1985 issue is Volume 1, No. II. Disks
with source code on them are also available for $8 each.

Coming Attractions

I just got word that the Amiga will be here in two days.
Next month's column will be devoted to a blow-by-blow
comparison of the Mac, the 520ST, and the Amiga, with
criticisms, benchmarks, and anything else I can come up
with. Until then, take care, and I'll see you on the bit
stream. ■

344 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 301 — ►

Networking Raised to a
Greater Power

Advanced Technology. With it, IBM tripled the speed of the
PC and increased its memory capacity five-fold. Nowhere is
this increase in computing power more important than in
networking situations. If the AT's technological advances
have prompted you to look into a multi-user network, you
owe it to yourself to take a closer look at MultiLink
Advanced'" ... a unique multi-tasking, multi-user network-
ing system that runs programs under PC-DOS 3.0.

Eight Workstations for the Price of an AT. MultiLink
Advanced"' represents the next generation in networking
systems for IBM microcomputers. The system enables ter-
minals, connected to a single AT, to emulate IBM-PC's hav-
ing up to 448K of RAM (The PC-Shadow'" terminal, shown
above, even has a PC look-alike, as well as work-alike
keyboard and display).

This means that instead of spending $3,000 per worksta-
tion for a PC with a Kilobuck "Network Interface Board," you
can use inexpensive terminals . . . eight of which cost less
than an IBM AT Even if you need only one workstation
connected to your AT, you'll realize significant savings.

MultiLink Advanced "... Instant Access to All of Your

Resources. Central to most multi-user situations is the
need to coordinate a variety of printers. With what's been
described by PC-Tech Journal as ", . . by far, the best print
spooler for the IBM PC," MultiLink Advanced "' gives users
the option to print either at their workstations, or at a central
location. In addition, programs and files can be shared by
multiple users locally or through use of a modem. Just think
of it . . . having remote access to an AT with a lightweight
terminal/modem.

Although designed to take advantage of the AT, MultiLink
Advanced " runs on all versions of PC-DOS, except 1 .0, and
certain implementations of MS-DOS. A wide range of lead-
ing programs are supported which include WordStar,
dBASE III, Multimate, and Lotus 1-2-3.

Get the Advanced Story Today. Call The Software Link
Today for complete details and the dealer nearest you. Multi-
Link Advanced" is immediately available at the suggested
retail price of $495 and comes with a money-back guaran-
tee. VISA, MC, AMEX accepted.

IBM PC. AT, & PC-DOS are trademarks of
IBM Corp MS-DOS, WordStar, dBase III,
Lotus 1-2-3. and Multimate are trademarks
of Microsoft Corp., MicroPro. Ashton-Tate.
Lotus Development Corp., & Multimate
International, respectively.

G^OGdUiidBs

J***\ P-w \y /^\ i^M v^7 ^^^ F~s

I^)the software link, inc.

8601 Dunwoody Place, Suite 632, Atlanta, GA 30338 Telex 4996147 SWLINK

CALL: 404/998-0700

Dealer Inquiries Invited

THE SOFTWARE LINK, INC/CANADA

CALL: 416/477-5480
MultiLink Advanced 7 ^ PC-Sh

CIRCUIT CELLAR FEEDBACK

Conducted by Steve Garcia

Architectures

Dear Steve.

Your SB 1 80 article has prompted me to
ask some questions that have been sim-
mering in my head for some time now
concerning 8- and 16-bit architectures.

It is a readily observable fact that most
applications for microcomputers and even
minicomputers are programs that manipu-
late text. With the prominent exception of
spreadsheets, most programs do little, if
any, arithmetic. Since text is represented
in 8-bit format, and there are a number
of well-established and efficient routines
to do mathematical calculations with 8-bit
architectures, what advantages do 16-bit
architectures offer? Especially considering
that some programs run just as fast, if not
faster, on 8-bit systems as they do on
16-bit systems.

Furthermore, how is the memory ar-
ranged on the systems that have a true
16-bit external data bus? If it is arranged
as an array of 1 6-bit registers— as opposed
to an array of 8-bit registers— it would
seem that half of the memory would be
wasted in operations involving only 8-bit
text manipulations. Moreover, representa-
tion of memory as some number of bytes
would be misleading; eight 256K-bit
memory chips would indeed constitute
2 56K bytes of memory (no parity) but
would be only I28K words.

What's going on here?

Richard White
Washington, DC

While it is certainly true that published
benchmarks show that a good 4- to
&MHzZ80 can "beat" an IBM PC, a com-
parison of 8- versus 16-bit processors
must look at many factors that interact
with each other. The question of an 8-bit
data path versus a 16-bit data path is im-
portant. All else being equal, a 16-bit pro-
cessor will get 2 bytes of data to manip-
ulate in the same amount of time (i.e.,
clock cycle) as an 8-bit processor. This is
one reason why the IBM PCs 8088 pro-
cessor doesn't have much of an advan-
tage over a Z80; its data path is only 8
bits wide, even though internally the
8088 is a 16-bit processor.

Second, clock speed is important. Ob-
viously, the faster the dock speed, the

faster the execution of instructions.

Third, even though the 8080, Z80,
8088, 8086, 80186, 80286, and 80386
are all in the same family of processors
and share a similarity of instruction
codes, the more advanced processors
have more powerful instructions than the
8-bit processors.

Fourth, the speed of any application is
also directly rela ted to the skill of the pro-
grammer. Given the same processor, two
different programmers can produce simi-
lar assembly-language programs that
operate and process data at substantially
different rates. After a certain level of ex-
pertise is reached, a programmer's skill
in extracting the last iota of performance
from a processor becomes more of an
art than an exact science.

In general, software development lags
behind hardware development by several
years. Only recently have we seen soft-
ware products that take advantage of the
architecture of 16-bit processors. The ad-
vantages of 1 6-bit processors are really
there, but the changes are evolutionary
rather than revolutionary.

In regard to your second point, 1 think
we have a problem with terminology.
TYaditionally, computers have been clas-
sified as 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit (for the
most part). And traditionally, these ma-
chines have been referred to as having
a "word" length of 1, 2, or 4 bytes. Thus,
we should refer to an IBM PC AT with
256K bytes of memory as a computer
with 128K words of memory.

But times change. With the microcom-
puter revolution, we started talking about
bytes and the 8-bit processor "word" as
equivalent. When IBM used the 8088
with its 16-bit internal architecture and
8-bit data bus, it really muddied the
waters (remember all the articles about
whether or not the 8088 was "really" a
16 -bit processor?). My general impres-
sion is that "words" are "out" and
"bytes" are "in."

Also, I sense some possible confusion
about how an 8-bit ASCII value is stored
in a 16-bit "word." The upper "half" of
the word is not blank or null, with the
ASCII character stored in the other "half."
An ASCII character takes up I byte,
period. So, a 16-bit "word" actually con-

tains two 8-bit ASCII characters. There-
fore, there is no "wasted" space.
I hope this clears things up.— Steve

SB180 Support

Dear Steve,

In "Build the SBI80 Single-Board Com-
puter, Part I: The Hardware" (September
1985, page 86), you state that the CPU will
address 512K bytes of memory, but the
board supports only 256K bytes. The
floppy-disk controller supports VA-, 514-
and 8-inch drives, but the jumpers on the
board appear to prevent a mixed 5 !4- and
8-inch system. Also, the monitor may sup-
port 96-tpi 514-inch drives, but does the
rest of the Z-System provide the same
support?

Preston Bricker
LaGrange Park, IL

The decision to limit the SBI80 to
"only" 25 6K bytes was based on two
considerations: (I) I wanted the entire
board to fit on top of a 3 'A-inch drive
(hence, no room for eight more chips).
(2) Since all CP/M programs written to
date make use of only a 64K-byte ad-
dress space, the additional RAM would
most likely be used as a RAM disk or to
implement buffers under CP/M Plus. Only
with the advent of the HD64180 is it now
possible to write 8-bit programs that can
utilize more than 64 K bytes.

The first prototype of the SB180 would
not handle 5!4-and 8-inch disks simulta-
neously, but the current version of hard-
ware and software does support them si-
multaneously. And, yes, the Z-System
does support the 96-tpi 5 14 -inch drives.
—Steve ■

Over the years I have presented many dif-
ferent projects in BYTE. 1 know many of you
have built them and are making use of them
in many ways.

I am interested in hearing from any of you
telling me what you've done with these projects
or how you may have been influenced by the
basic ideas. Write me at Circuit Cellar Feed-
back, POB 582. Glastonbury. CT 06033.
and fill me in on your applications. All letters
and photographs become the property of Steve
Ciarcia and cannot be returned.

346 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

COPYRIGHT © 1986 STEVEN A. CIARCIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

MICROWAY'S 8087 RUNS 1-2-3"!

MicroWay is the world's leading retail-
er of 8087s and high performance PC
upgrades We stock a complete selec-
tion of 8087sthat run at 5 and 8mhz. All
of our coprocessors are shipped with a
diagnostic disk and the best warranty
in the business - one year! We also
offer daughterboards for socketless
computers such as the N EC PC, and a
board which increases the clock speed
of the 80287 from 4 to 8 mhz. Our
NUMBER SMASHER™ includes 51 2K
ram. It will run the IBM PC at clock
speeds up to 1 0mhz and achieves a
throughput of .1 megaflops with

87BASIC/INLINE, Intel Fortran, or Micro-
soft Fortran. Software reviewers con-
sistently cite MicroWay software and
8087 expertise as the best in the in-
dustry! Our customers frequently write
to thank us for recommending the cor-
rect software and hardware to meet
their specific needs. They also thank
us for our same day shipping! In addi-
tion to our own products which sup-
port the 8087 and 80287, we stock the
largest supply of specialized software
available. For information call us at

61 7-746-7341

Micro

FASTBREAK™ employs the 8087 to ir>
crease the speed of Lotus 1 -2-3™ Ver-
sion 1 A or 1 A* by up to 36 to 1 . . $79
FASTPAK™ includes FASTBREAK soft-
ware and a 5mhz 8087 $1 79

87SFL T¥ - Micro Way's Scientific Func-
tion Library contains 1 70 scientific and
engineering functions ranging from
simple trigonometries to Kelvin, Airy,
Ellipticals, Integrals, Bessel, Weier-
strass, Polynomials and Probabilities. It
is callable from most 8087 com-
patible compilers.

First Language $250

Additional Languages each $1 00

SPEED UP YOUR AT
WITH 287TURB0 ' - 8mhz

8087$

010

rt

For the IBM PC, PC XT,

NUMBER SMASHER" The Worlds Fast
est Accelerator Card for the I B M PC, XT, and Com-
patibles! Includes an 8086 and 8087 pair tested
to 10 mhz, and 51 2 K bytes of high speed ram.
Compatible with all software, operating systems
and hardware! Your program speed is increased
by a factor of 2.5 to 4.0. Floating point programs
run up to 2.8 times faster on the PC than on an
80287 equipped PC AT $1 049

MATRIXPAK™ manages a MEGABYTE!
Written in assembly language, our runtime pac-
kage accurately manipulates large matrices at
very fast speeds Includes matrix inversion and
the solution of simultaneous linear equations
Callable from MS Fortran 3.3, MS Assembler, and
87BASIC/INLINE each $99

87FFT™ Written in assembly language, per-
forms Forward and Inverse FFTs on real and com-
plex arrays which occupy up to 512 K bytes of
RAM. Also does convolutions, auto correlations,
hamming, complex vector multiplication, and com-
plex to radial conversions. Callable from MS For-
tran, 87MACRO, C, TURBO PASCAL or

87BASIC/INLINE $200

87FFT-2™ performs two-dimensional FFTs.
Ideal for image processing Requires 87FFT $1 00

GRAPHICS PACKAGES

Grafmatic for Fortran or Pascal $125

Plotmatic for Grafmatic $1 25

MultiHalo (one language) $1 89

DFixer™ - A disk utility which thoroughly
checks PC or AT hard disks for bad sectors and
updates the MS DOS file allocation table
accordingly $1 49

A2D-160™ - MicroWay's Data Acquisition
Board performs 1 60,000 1 2 bit Analog to Digital
conversions per second! Includes software
drivers. The fastest 1 2 bit A to D' board available.
For the IBM PC or XT $1 295

European Customers: Please call M

Micro
May

P.O. Box 79
Kingston, Mass
02364 USA

(617)746-7341

87 BASIC/ 1 N LI N E™ converts the output of
the IBM Basic Compiler into optimized 8087
inline code which executes up to seven times fas-
ter than 87BASIC. Supports separately compiled
inline subroutines which are located in their own
segments and can contain up to 64K bytes of
code. This allows programs greater than 128K!
Requires the IBM Basic Compiler and Macro
Assembler. Includes 87BASIC $200

87 BASIC™ includes patches to the IBM Basic
or MS Quick Basic Compiler for USER TRANS-
PARENT 8087 support Provides super fast per-
formance for all numeric operations including trig-
onometries, transcendentals, addition, subtrac-
tion, multiplication, and division each $1 50

87MACRO/DEBUG™ contains all the
pieces needed for writing 8087/80287 assembly
code including 8087 macros, object libraries for
commonly used functions, including transcen-
dentals, trigonometries and conversions between
strings and real numbers Our 87DEBUG com-
pletes the package $199

OBJ -» ASM™ - a multipass object module
translator and disassembler. Produces assembly
language listings which include public symbols,
external symbols, and labels commented with
cross references Ideal for patching object mod-
ules for which source is not available $200

RTOS- REALTIME OPERATING SYSTEM

RTOS is a multi-user, multi-tasking real time oper-
ating system. It includes a configured version of
I nteFs iR M X-86, LI N K-86, LOC-86, LI B-86, OH-86,
and MicroWay's87DEBUG. Runs on the IBM- PC,
XT, PC-AT and COMPAQ $400

INTEL COMPILERS

FORTRAN-86 $750

PASCAL-86 $750

PL/M-86 $500

ASM-86 $200

All MicroWay product names are trademarks of MicroWay, Inc.
Manufacturers' product names are trademarks of individual
manufacturers

icroWay in London at 01-223-7662.

The World Leader
in 8087 Support!

Inquiry 229

PC AT and Compatibles.
8087 5mhz $109

Including DIAGNOSTICS and one-year warranty
For IBM PC and compatibles

8087-3 5mhz $175

For the Tandy 1 200.

8087-2 8mhz $175

For Wang, AT&T, DeskPro, NEC, Leading Edge.

80287-3 5mhz $199

For the IBM PC AT and Compaq DeskPro 286.

80287-8 8mhz $295

For 8mhz sockets.

287Turbo™ 8 mhz $395

With Reset and Diagnostics for IBM PC AT.

88Turbo™ $195

For the IBM PC and XT.

64K RAM Set 150ns $9

256K RAM Set 150ns $29

256K RAM Set 120ns $39

128KRAMSetPCAT $89

JRAM, MA YNARP,AST call

COMPILERS and UTILITIES

Microsoft Fortran Version 3.31 $209

IBM Professional Fortran 565

Ryan-McFarland Fortran 399

FORLIB+ or STRINGS and THINGS 65

LatticeC 269

Microsoft C 299

FLOAT87 1 50

IBM Basic Compiler Version 2.0 465

Microsoft Quick Basic 89

Summit BetterBASIC'" 1 75

True Basic 105

IBM Assembler with Librarian V. 2.0 1 55

Microsoft Assembler Version 3.01 99

Microsoft Pascal Version 3.31 1 99

Borland Turbo with 8087 Support 85

STSC APL*PLUS/PC 450

STATGRAPHICS 595

COSMOS Revelation 750

Phoenix Plink86 295

SPSS/PC+ 595

SPSS ADVANCED STATISTICS 275

SPSS TABLES 275

EPSILON Text Editor 1 95

UXBTECH NOTEBOOK CALL

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 347

^t

THE CMO ADVANTAGE

THE BEST PRICES!

^ Nextday shipping on all in stock
items.

^ Free easy access order inquiry.

^ Orders from outside

Pennsylvania save state sales-

^ Free technicial support with our
factory trained technical staff.

** There is no limit and no deposit
on C.O.D. orders.

^ There's no extra charge for using
your MasterCard or Visa. Your
card is not charged until we ship.

s No waiting period for cashiers
checks,

^ We accept purchase orders from
qualified corporations. Subject to
approval.

v Educational discounts available
to qualified institutions.

^ FREE CATALOG MEMBERSHIP.

CALL TOLL-FREE
1-800-233-8950

Educational Institutions
Call Toil-Free

1-800-221-4283

CUSTOMER SERVICE

& TECH SUPPORT

1-717-327-1450
Dept. A 102

HOME COMPUTERS

MODEMS

1-800-268-3974

Ontario/Quebec

1-800-268-4559

Other Provinces

1-416-828-0866

In Toronto

TELEX: 06-218960

2505 Dunwin Drive,

Mississauga, Ontario

Canada L5L1T1

All prices shown are for U.S.A.

orders.

Call The Canadian Office for

Canadian prices.

ATARI

130XE (128K) CALL

520ST (512K) CALL

800XL 64K CALL

1010 Recorder $49.99

1050 Disk Drive CALL

1027 Letter Quality Printer $129.00

1030 Direct Connect Modem $59.99

Software Specials

8036 Atari Writer $24.99

Star Raiders $4.99

Missile Command $4.99

Defender $4.99

Galaxian $4.99

Asteroids $4.99

Centipede $4.99

Miner 2049'er $4.99

Eastern Front $4.99

SynCalc $19.99

SynFile..... $19.99

VisiCalc $39.99

APPLE

APPLE Me CALL

APPLE lie....... CALL

MaclNTOSH CALL

He LCD Display CALL

HAYDEN

Art Grabber $31.99

Home Design $49.99

Media Works $63.99

PALADIN

Crunch 512 $189.00

C Z commodore

C12B Computer S269.00

C1571 (Disk Drive for C12B) SNEW

C1902 (RGB 13" Monitor for C128)....SNEW
C1670 (Modem for C12B) SNEW

CBM 64 CALL

C1541 Disk Drive $199.00

C1530 Datasette $39.99

M-801 Dot Matrix Printer $169.00

MCS 803 Dot Matrix $179.00

C1702 Color Monitor $189.00

C1660 Auto Modem $59.99

DPS 1101 Daisy Printer $339.00

PORTABLE COMPUTERS

WKpl HEWLETT
mL'KM PACKARD

41CV $189.99

41CX $249.99

HP 11C $62.99

HP 12C $89.99

HP 15C. $89.99

HP 16C $89.99

HPIL Module $98.99

HPIL Cassette or Printer ..$359.99

Card Reader $143.99

Extended Function Module $63.99

Time Module $63.99

We stock the full line of
HP calculator products

SEC

PC-8401 LS CALL

PC-8201 Portable Computer. ...$319.00

PC-8231 Disk Drive $599.00

PC-8221A Thermal Printers $149.00

PC-8281A Data Recorder $99.99

PC-8201-06 8K RAM Chips $79.99

SHARP

PC-1350 $149.00

PC-1261 $149.00

PC-1500A $169.00

PC-1250A $89.99

CE-125 Printer/Cassette $129.00

CE-150 Color Printer Cassette.$1 49.00
CE-161 16K RAM $129.00

ATARI 520-ST
SOFTWARE

SIERRA ON LINE

Ultima II $39.99

Gato $29.99

INFOCOM

Zorkl. II. Ill (ea.) $29.99

Hitchiker's Guide $29.99

Wishbringer $29.99

Suspended $37.99

HABA

Hippo-C $44.99

MIRAGE CONCEPTS

Express $34.99

ST-Toolbox CALL

MARK OF THE UNICORN

Final Word $94.99

Hex $29.99

PC Intercom $89.99

Macintosh Software

Lotus Jazz CALL

Microsoft Excel $259.00

Living Videotext

ThinkTank 512...: $159.00

Manhatten Ready, Set, Go $79.99

Creighton Development

Mac Spell $69.99

Monogram Dollars & Sense.. ..$99.99
Peachtree Back to Basics - GL$1 09.00
PFS File & Report (New Version)$1 19.00
Silicon Beach Airborn $25.99

Professional Software

Fleet System II w/Spell^(128)... $49.99

Trivia Fever $29.99

Word Pro 4 Plus/5 Plus each. ..$239.00

Info Pro $179.00

BRODERBUND

The Print Shop $29.99

Music Shop $29.99

f&

File (64) $39.99

PaperClip w/Spell Pack $49.99

The Consultant DBMS $37.99

Bus Card II. $119.00

80 Col Display $99.99

maxell

3V 2 " SS/DD (10) $24.99

3Vz" DS/DD (10) $34.99

5V4" MD-1 w/Hardcases (10) $12.99

5 1 A" MD-2 w/Hardcases (10) $19.99

5V4" MD-2-HD for AT (10) $39.99

3Vz" 5 pack SS/DD $15.99

vA Verbatim.

5V4" SS/DD $19.99

5 1 /4 M DS/DD $24.99

Disk Analyzer $24.99

Elephant 3V 2 " SS/DD $29.99

Elephant 5Vi" SS/SD $13.99

Elephant 5V4 M SS/DD $14.99

Elephant 5 1 /4" DS/DD $16.99

Elephant Premium DS/DD $22.99

51A" DS/DD floppy disks

(Box of 10) $26.99

DISK HOLDERS

INNOVATIVE CONCEPTS

Flip-in-File 10 $2.99

Flip-in-File 50 $17.99

Flip-in-File 50 w/lock $24.99

Flip-in-File 100 $24.99

AMARAY

50 Disk Tub 5Va" $9.99

30 Disk Tub 3Vz" $9.99

ANCHOR

Volksmodem $59.99

Volksmodem 300/1200 $189.99

Signalman Express $259.00

Lightning 2400 Baud $399.00

DIGITAL DEVICES

AT300 - 300 Baud (Atari) $99.99

(B Hayes

Smartmodem 300 $139.00

Smartmodem 1200 $389.00

Smartmodem 1 200B $359.00

Smartmodem 2400 $599.00

Micromodem He $149.00

Smart Com II $89.99

Chronograph $199.00

Transet 1000 $309.00

AST

Reach 1200 Baud Half Card. ...$399.00

nv* miCROBITS

MPP-1064 AD/AA (C-64) $69.99

[Novation ]B|

Smart Cat Plus $319.00

J-Cat $99

Novation 2400 $499.00

Apple Cat II $229.00

212 Apple Cat II $379.00

Apple Cat 212 Upgrade $229.00

Macmodem $279.00

Quadmodem II

300/1200 $339.00

300/1200/2400 $499.00

TELELEARNING

C64 300 Baud (Closeout) $39.99

EVEREX
1200 Baud Internal (IBM/PC).. .$199.00

GRAPHICS

■ Polaroid

Palette.... $1299.00

DRIVES

HARD

l\M5G/V

10 meg Bernoulli Box $1899.00

20 meg Bernoulli Box $2599.00

5 meg "MacNoulli" $1499.00

#TALLGRASS
TECHNOLOGIES
COMMnFDFOwEvns-'

25, 35, 50, 80 meg (PC)
from $1299.00

IRWIN

Tape Backup CALL

^=^VEREX-

60 Meg Internal Backup System$829.00

U-SCI

10 meg Internal IBM $399.00

20 meg Internal IBM $549.00

CORE

AT20-AT72MB CALL

FLOPPY

iNDUS

Atari GT $219.00

C-64 GT $219.00

MICRO SCI

A1.5 Apple $179.00

A2 Apple $179.00

SD1 C-64 Single $219.00

SD2 C-64 Dual $469.00

landan

320K 51/4" (PC) $119.00

TEAC

320K 5 1 /4" $1 19.00

MONITORS

vQMDEK

Video 300 Green $129.00

Video 300A Amber $139.00

Video 310A Amber TTL $169.00

Color 300 Composite $169.00

Color 500 Composite/RGB $289.00

Color 600 Hi-Res. RGB $399.00

Color 710 Ultra Hi-Res $439.00

Color 722 Dual Mode $529.00

SEC

JB1270G/1275A (ea.) $99.99

JB1280G TTL $129.00

JB1285G TTL $129.00

JC1460 RGB $249.00

JC1225 Composite $179.00

PRINCETON

MAX-12E Amber $179.00

HX-9 9" RGB $469.00

HX-9E Enhanced $519.00

HX-12 12" RGB $469.00

HX-12E Enhanced $559.00

SR-12 Hi-Res $599.00

SR-12P Professional $699.00

$TAXA/V

115 12" Green $119.00

116 12" Amber. $129.00

121 TTL Green $139.00

122 TTL Amber..... $149.00

610 510x200 RGB $NEW

620 640x200 RGB $NEW

630 640x200 RGB $NEW

640 720x400 RGB $NEW

8400 Quadchrome I $499.00

8410 Quadchrome II $339.00

8420 Amberchrome $179.00

8500 Quad Screen $1449.00

ZVM 1220/1230 (ea.) $99.99

ZVM 1240 IBM Amber $149.00

ZVM 130 Color $269.00

ZVM 131 Color $249.00

ZVM 133 RGB $429.00

ZVM 135 RGB/Color $459.00

ZVM 136 RGB/Color $599.00

INTERFACES

/isr

Multi I/O (Apple II) $159.00

UUpRACTiCAL

Graphcard $79.99

Seriall Card $99.99

Microbuffer II + $169.00

Microbuffer 32K $189.00

Microfazer from $139.00

Efazer (Epson) from $79.99

jjjoronge micro

Grappler CD (C64) $89.99

Grappler + (Apple) $89.99

Grappler 16K+ (Apple) $159.00

DIGITAL DEVICES

Ape Face (Atari) $49,99

U-Print A (Atari) $54.99

U-A16/Buffer (Atari) $74.99

U-Call Interface (Atari) $39.99

U-Print C (C64) $49.99

P-16 Print Buffer $74.99

U-Print 16 apple lie $89.99

PRINTERS

Canon

A40 CALL

LBP-8A1 Laser CALL

#CITIZEN

MSP-10 (80 col.) $279.00

MSP-15 (132 col.) $389.00

MSP-20 (80 col.) $349.00

MSP-25 (132 col.) $509.00

C.ITOH

Prowriter 7500 $179.00

Prowriter 1550P $349.00

Starwriter 10-30 $399.00

corona

Lazer LP-300 $2799.00

DIABLO

D25 Daisywheel $549.00

635 Daisywheel $899.00

D80IF Daisywheel CALL

d&sywriter

2000 $749.00

EPSON

Homewriter 10, LX-80, LX-90 CALL

FX-85, FX-286, RX-100, JX-80 CALL

DX-10, DX-20, DX-35 CALL

SQ-2000, Hi-80, HS-80, AP-80 CALL

LQ-800. LQ-1000. LQ-1500 CALL

JUKI

6000 Letter Quality CALL

6100 Letter Quality CALL

6200 Letter Quality CALL

6300 Letter Quality CALL

5510 Dot Matrix CALL

LEGEND

808 Dot Matrix 100 cps $179.00

1080 Dot Matrix 100 cps $259.00

1380 Dot Matrix 130 cps $289.00

1385 Dot Matrix 165 cps $339.00

SEC

8027 Transportable $199.00

3000 Series $1099.00

8000 Series $1399.00

ELF 360 $449.00

Pinwriter 560 $999.00

OKIDATA

182, 183, 192, 193, 2410, 84 CALL

Okimate 10 (Specify C64/Atari)$1 89.00
Okimate 20 (IBM) CALL

Panasonic

KX1080 $NEW

KX1091 $259.00

KX1092 $389.00

KX1093 $479.00

Quadjet $399.00

Quad Laser CALL

$j*SiiyER-RE€0

500 Letter Quality $279.00

550 Letter Quality $419.00

770 Letter Quality $759.00

SG-10C (C64 Interface) CALL

SB/SD/SG/SR Series CALL

Powertype Letter Quality CALL

Texas Instruments

TI850 $529.00

TI855 $639.00

TI865 $799.00

TOSHIBA

1340 (80 column) $469.00

P341 (132 column) $949.00

P351 (132 column) $1099.00

PC COMPATIBLES

SOFTWARE FOR IBM

IBM PC SYSTEMS

Configured to your

specification.
Call for Best Price!

IBM-PC, IBM-PC II, IBM-XT, IBM-AT

KP-2000 Portable. ,. . * CALL

Kaypro PC CALL

ASHTON-TATE

Framework II $399.00

dBase III $369.00

BORLAND

Lightening $59.99

Sidekick (unprotected) $59.99

Reflex $59.99

CENTRAL POINT

Copy II PC-Backup $29.99

DECISION RESOURCES

Chartmaster $229.00

Signmaster $169.00

Diagram Master $219.00

ENERTRONICS

Energraphics/Plot $289.00

FOX & GELLER

Quickcode III $169.00

FUNK SOFTWARE

Sideways $39.99

HARVARD SOFTWARE

Total Project Manager $269.00

INFOCOM

Cornerstone $279.00

LIFETREE

Volkswriter Deluxe $159.00

LIVING VIDEOTEXT

Think Tank $109.00

Ready $64.99

LOTUS

Symphony CALL

1-2-3 CALL

MECA SOFTWARE

Managing Your Money 2.0 $99.99

MICROSTUF SOFTWARE

Crosstalk XVI $89.99

Crosstalk Mark IV $149.00

Remote $89.99

MICRORIM SOFTWARE

R:Base 4000 $249.00

R:Base 5000 $389.00

Clout 2.0 $129.00

MICROPRO

WordStar 2000 $249.00

WordStar 2000 + $299.00

WordStar Professional $199.00

Easy $99.99

MICROSOFT

Word $229.00

Mouse $139.00

Flight Simulator $39.99

MultiPlan $129.00

MULTIMATE

Advantage $299.00

Multi Mate Word Proc $249.00

On File $94.99

Just Write $94.99

NOUEMENON

Intuit $69.99

NORTON

Norton Utilities 3,1 $59.99

ONE STEP

Golf's Best $39.99

PEACHTREE SOFTWARE

Peachtext 5000 $179.00

PFS:IBM

First Success W/F/P $199.00

File/Graph (ea.) $79.99

Report $74.99

Write/Proof Combo $79.99

PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE

Wordplus-PC w/Boss $249.00

THE SOFTWARE GROUP

Enable $259.00

SATELLITE SYSTEMS

Word Perfect 4.1 $219.00

SORCIM/IUS
Accounting

AP/AR/GUINV/OE (ea.) $299.00

SuperCalc III $199.00

EasyWriter II System $199.00

Super Project $199.00

SPI SOFTWARE

Open Access $379.00

SUBLOGIC

Jet $39.99

5th GENERATION
Fast Back $119.00

PC-138 Series CALL

PC-148 Series CALL

PC-158 Series CALL

PC-160 Series CALL

PC-171 Series CALL

AT-200 Series CALL

@ SANYO

MBC 550-2 Single Drive $649.00

MBC 555-2 Dual Drive $949.00

MBC 675 Portable CALL

MBC775 $1699.00

MBC 880 Desktop CALL

Safari (7300) CALL

6300 CALL

corona

PPC400 Dual Portable $1289.00

PPCXT 10 meg Portable $1989.00

PC40022 Dual Desktop $1389.00

PC400-HD2 10 meg $1989.00

ITT

ITT X-TRA

256K, 2 Drive System CALL

256K.10 meg Hard DriveSystem CALL
XP5, 20 meg CALL

Sperry-AT as low as $1749.00

Sperry-IT as low as $2699.00

Call for Specific Configuration!
All Models CALL

MULTIFUNCTION CARDS

/isr

Six Pack Plus $229.00

I/O Plus II $139.00

Advantage-AT $399.00

Graph Pak/64K $599.00

MonoGraph Plus $399.00

Preview Mono $299.00

PC Net Cards $379.00

5251/11 On-line $669.00

5251/12 Remote $579.00

IRMA 3270...! ?T^™~ $879.00

IRMA Print $999.00

IRMA Smart Alec $779.00

Edge Card S259.00

Graphics Edge $259.00

Magic Card II $169.00

HERCULES

Graphics S299.00

Color $159.00

IDfcAssQciates

IDEA 5251 $589.00

MYLEX

The Chairman $469.00

PARADISE

Color/Mono Card $149.00

Modular Graphics Card ...$259.00

Multi Display Card $219.00

Five Pack C. S .....$129.00

PERSY5T

Bob Board $359.00

li i —I

Captain - 64 $199.00

Captain Jr. 128K $199.00

Graphics Master $469.00

Quadport-AT J~~...$119.00

Liberty-AT (128K) $349.00

The Gold Quadboard $449.00

The Silver Quadboard $239.00

Expanded Quadboard $209.00

Liberty $309.00

QuadSprint $499.00

QuadLink $399.00

QuadColor $199.00

QuadJr. Expansion Chassis $419.00

Expansion Chassis Memory $199.00

Chronagraph $79.99

Parallel Interface Board $64,99

INTEL

PCNC8087 5MHz

PCNC8087-2 8 MHz CALL

PCNC80287 6 MHz FOR

1010 PC-Above Board YOUR

1110 PS-Above Board PC

2010 AT-Above Board

tfr>

li V

DISKS AND DOWNLOADS

Ordering Disks of BYTE Listings

Source-code listings in the form of text files
of programs that accompany BYTE articles are now
available from BYTE on disk, lb order a disk
of these listings for noncommercial purposes,
indicate the issue (the first available is December
1985) and the kind of disk on the form below.
Enclose a check or money order in the correct
amount made out to BYTE Listings. All prices
include postage. Send requests to BYTE Listings,
70 Main St., Peterborough, NH 03458.

BYTE issue:

COMMON 5 '/4-INCH FORMATS

(all cost $5 per disk in North America, $6 in
Europe and South America, $7 in Asia, Africa, and
Australia)

□ Apple II 5 M -inch DOS 3.3

□ Apple II 5 14 -inch ProDOS

□ Atari

□ Commodore 64

□ Hewlett-Packard 125

□ IBM PC

□ Kaypro 2 CP/M

□ Tfexas Instruments Professional
D TRS-80 Model III

D TRS-80 Model 4

□ Zenith Z-100

COMMON 3 '/2-INCH FORMATS

(all cost $6 per disk in North America, $7 in
Europe and South America, $8 in Asia, Africa, and
Australia)

□ Apple Macintosh

□ Atari 520ST

□ Commodore Amiga

□ Data General/One

□ Hewlett-Packard 1 50

CP/M STANDARD 8-INCH FORMAT

($6 per disk in North America, $7 in Europe and
South America, $8 in Asia, Africa, and Australia)
□ Single-sided single-density

OTHER FORMATS

(all cost $6 per disk in North America, $7 in

Europe and South America, $8 in Asia, Africa, and

Australia)

Size Machine

□ 8-inch

□ 5 !/4-inch

□ 3 /2-inch

SEND DISK TO:

Name.

Street

City

State or Province .
Country

Postal Code

Check or money order enclosed for $_

Bulletin Boards in Canada

Listed below are some computer bulletin boards
that carry program listings from BYTE. Programs
are for noncommercial use in connection with
BYTE articles only. Some BBSs may charge an
annual maintenance fee, and you must pay your
own telephone charges.

Western Canadian Distribution Center (101 11112
101st St., Edmonton, Alberta T5G 2A2) will be sup-
plying listings to its member bulletin-board systems.

Edmonton, Alberta, (403) 454-6093

Meadowlark, Alberta. (403) 43 5-6579

Montreal, Quebec, PComm Systems,
(514) 989-9450

Prince George, British Columbia, (604) 562-9519

Regina, Saskatchewan, (306) 586-5585

Toronto, Ontario, Canadian Remote Systems, (416)
231-9202

Toronto, Ontario, Epson Club of Toronto (EPCOT),
(416) 63 5-9600

Winnipeg, Manitoba, (204) 452-5529

In addition, arrangements for BYTEnet Listings are
available from one or more system operators in the
following nations: Australia, Denmark, Italy, Japan,
Norway, Singapore, Sweden, and United Kingdom.
Contact us at (603) 924-9281 for an up-to-date list.

350 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

CompuPro Opens The Door

. . . For Total Solutions With Our Family of
Multi-User Systems And System Components.

Sometimes it seems like opportunity is just behind the door.
At CompuPro, we've created a family of multi-user systems and system
components that open many doors— from high performance multi-user
business systems to industrial control.

CompuPro products have earned an enviable reputation for delivering
performance quality and reliability— at prices that shut the door on the
competition.

So whether you use systems or build them, let CompuPro open some
doors for you.

UmauPro

Viasyn Corporation

26538 Danti Court

Hayward, CA 94545-3999

800-842-7961
800-842-7962 (California)

From McGraw-Hill the professionals' publisher

Join BYTE: The Book Club
for the Computer Professional

HANDBOOK OF SOFTWARE
ENGINEERING. Edited by C.
Vick and C . Ramamoorthy. 683 pp.,
332 illus. and tables. Emphasizing
quality assurance, this first-ever
guide shows you how to design,
implement, test and maintain vir-
tually any type of software. Rang-
ing from graphic theoretic model-
ing to software development you
see how to apply the latest soft-
ware engineering techniques in
each stage of development.
583204-6A S62.50

(Counts as 3 of your 3 books)

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS. By R.

F. Graf. 760 pp., 1,256 illus. Deliv-
ers 1256, fully illustrated circuits,
each accompanied by explanatory
circuit notes for your convenience.
Covers the full gamut from filters
to sensors and controllers to pulse
generators and converters. Fully
indexed this unique compendium
has broken these proven circuits
into 98 categories.
583265-8A S50.00

(Counts as 3 of your 3 books)

ADVANCED PROGRAM-
MER'S GUIDE Featuring
dBase II and dBase III. By L.

Castro, J. Hanson and J. Rettig. 450
pp., illus. softbound. Most com-
plete guide now available on ad-
vanced dBase. Covers the latest de-
bugging techniques, subroutines,
structured programming and sys-
tem design and documentation.
Thorough coverage included on the
implementation process.
583149-XB S28.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

SINGLE-CHIP MICROCOM-
PUTERS. Edited by P. Lister. 231
pp., 102 illus., 25 tables. Compre-
hensive coverage of the single-chip
micros now available, their char-
acteristics and application range.
Separate chapters cover Motoro-
la's M6801 & M6805 families, TPs
TMS 1000 & TMS 7000 devices, Zi-
log's Z80. National Semiconduc-
tors COPS 400 and Mostek's 16-bit
MK 682000.

308/309B S39.50

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

352 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

OPTICAL COMMUNICATION
SYSTEMS. By J. Gowar. 577 pp.,
215 illus. This complete and up-to-
the-minute survey of OptiCom em-
phasizes both theory and technol-
ogy. Over 200 detailed illustrations
illuminate crucial points. Compre-
hensive glossary of symbols.
582926-6B S44.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

Get the competitive edge with

the newest and the best information

in your field . . . with books from

all the leading publishers.

New Members

TAKE ANY 3 BOOKS

FOR ONLY s|QO EACH*

Values up to $83.50

THE HANDBOOK OF COM-
PUTERS AND COMPUTING.

Edited by A. Seidman and I. Flores.
874 pp., illus. This monumental
handbook, aimed specifically at
computer professionals, covers
everything from microprogram-
ming, online systems and program-
ming ergonomics to software en-
gineering and computer security.
Features the first intensive explo-
ration of ATE to appear in print.
583138-4A S77.50

(Counts as 3 of your 3 books)

DATA STRUCTURES FOR
PERSONAL COMPUTERS. By

Y. Langsam, M. Augenstein and A.
Tenenbaum. 560 pp., 116 illus.
Gives you a solid grounding in high-
level programming techniques by
combining the elementary con-
cepts of data structures with guid-
ance on structured programming
in BASIC.

583186-4B S29.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

COMPARING AND ASSESS-
ING PROGRAMMING LAN-
GUAGES: ADA • C • Pascal.

Edited by A. Feurer and N. Behani.
271 pp., softbound. Enhances your
understanding of these languages
by comparing their strengths and
weaknesses. Contrasts and as-
sesses each so you can choose the
best for your application.
583262-3 S16.95

PROGRAMMING ASSEM-
BLER LANGUAGE. By P. Abel.
2nd Ed., 581 pp., 154 illus. and list-
ings. Updated and expanded this
carefully detailed study of the 370
mainframe and Assembler covers
the essentials of Assembler coding,
binary operations, and external
storage. Also discusses debugging,
floating point operations, macro
writing and operating systems.
583088-4B S26.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

MULTIPLE PROCESSOR SYS-
TEMS FOR REAL-TIME AP-
PLICATIONS. By B. Liebowitz
and J. Carson. 383 pp., 150 illus.
This definitive guide for the prac-
ticing professional covers each of
the MPS's major building compo-
nents, design tools and techniques
and implementation methodology.
Case histories from both govern-
ment and industry are included.
583237-2B S36.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

ART AND THE COMPUTER.

By M. Prueitt; intro. by CARL SA-
GAN. 256 pp., 277 full-color illus.
First comprehensive survey of to-
day's extraordinary computer
graphics. Describes and illustrates,
in full color, the principles and
techniques behind this revolution-
ary new art form.
508/941B S39.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

COMPUTATIONAL ASPECTS
OF VLSI. By J. Ullman. 495 pp..
252 illus. Coverage ranges from the
theoretical to current VLSI design
tools and the algorithms that un-
derlie them. Includes specific al-
gorithms for circuit extraction, rule
checking, switch-level simulation
and automatic routing.
582990-8B S44.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

SUCCESSFUL DATA PRO-
CESSING SYSTEM ANALY-
SIS, 2/e. By T. Gildersleeve. 369
pp., 117 illus. This completely re-
vised, updated and expanded guide
covers the whole process of system
analysis. In clear, professional lan-
guage it covers identifying the
problem and developing a cost-
benefit analysis to testing the sys-
tem for acceptability.
583311-5B S30.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

PROGRAMMABLE CON-

TROLLER HANDBOOK. By R

Wilhelm, Jr. 718 pp.. 341 illus. First
comprehensive reference on these
special-purpose computers that are
now the standard solution to most
industrial control applications.
Special attention is given to the
many functions and operations not
possible to perform with industrial
control relays.

583244-5B S49.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

DATA COMMUNICATIONS,
NETWORKS AND SYSTEMS.

T. Bartee, Editor-in-Chief. 359 pp.,
196 illus. Brings you up-to-date pm
digital system design. Shows how
they operate and the trade-offs they
entail. Covers basic system ap-
proaches, network security, error
control techniques and common
carrier regulations.
583276-3B S39.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

BYTE BOOK CLUB

Membership Order Card

Please enroll me as a member and send me the three
choices 1 have listed below. Bill me only $3.00, plus local
tax, postage and handling. I agree to purchase a mini-
mum of three additional books during my first year as
outlined under the Club plan described in this ad. Mem-
bership in the club is cancellable by me any time after
the three book purchase requirement has been fulfilled.
A shipping and handling charge is added to all shipments.

Indicate below by number the books you want. A
expensive books (noted in the descriptions) count
more than one choice.

you want. A few
as

Name-

Address/Apt. #_
City. State, Zip_

Corporate Affiliation-

This order subject to acceptance by McGraw-Hill. All
prices subject to change without notice. Offer good
only to new members.

PRINTED IN U.S.A.

Byte

P39710

BYTE BOOK CLUB

Membership Order Card

Please enroll me as a member and send me the three
choices l have listed below. Bill me only $3.00, plus local
tax, postage and handling. I agree to purchase a mini-
mum of three additional books during my first year as
outlined under the Club plan described in this ad. Mem-
bership in the club is cancellable by me any time after
the three book purchase requirement has been fulfilled.
A shipping and handling charge is added to all shipments.

Indicate below by number the books you want. A few
expensive books (noted in the descriptions) count as
more than one choice.

Name-

Address/Apt. #_
City, State. Zip_

Corporate Affiliation^

This order subject to acceptance by McGraw-Hill. All
prices subject to change without notice. Offer good
only to new members.

PRINTED IN U.S.A.

Byte

P39711

en

Q_ q ^ ZLU

z
o

I
I

CL3
UJd

(/>£

(0

LU

<

2

1

CD:

o>

ID

in

o>

n

o>

LU
LU

CD

3
u

1

O
CM

m

LU

^

00

DC
Q

Q
<

>

m

z

CD

s

CM

^

Q

LU
GO

_l
_l

■

00

c
5

X

CO

O)

LU

n

2

q:

x

<r

K

CO

Q_

KS

J z

■™ z

<1

Si

CD

>-*

£L-

UJd

*i

</)£

(/>

LU,

Zi

^^ CO

</><

J 1-

0Q£

o>

m

in

o>

n

o>

LU
LU

3

CO

u

CM

CO

10

LU

^

00

LT

n

Q
<

>

go

z

CD

^s

CM

^

Q

as

■

00

c

5

LU
CD

(3

X

-J

X-

cu

*■*

5

LU
O

O

£

2

q:

O)

X

<

h-

CO

O
Q_

itii

DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF
DISTRIBUTED REAL-TIME
SYSTEMS. By P. Fortier
216/193B S36.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL
COMPUTER CONSULTANT.

By A. Simon

572/968 S16.95

THE THEORY & PRACTICE OF
COMPUTER WRITING. By J.

Tremblay & P. Sorenson
651/612B S39.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

INTRODUCING PC-DOS & MS-
DOS. By J. Sheldon
565/597 S18.95

68,000 MICROPROCESSOR.

By\N. Triebel & A. Singh
583613-OB S34.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

PROGRAMMING WITH

TURBO PASCAL. By D. Carroll
852908-5B S34.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE,

3/e. By C. Foster & T. Iberall
583278-XB S38.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

MICROPROCESSOR SYSTEM
DESIGN CONCEPTS. By N. Al-
exandria^

583313-1B S32.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

CREATING COMPUTER

SOFTWARE USER GUIDES.

By D. Houghton-Alico

304/718 S17.95

FUNDAMENTALS OF PRO-
GRAMMING LANGUAGES,

2/e. By E. Horowitz

583303-4B S29.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

MICROCOMPUTER ASSEM-
BLY LANGUAGE PROGRAM-
MING. By G. Elfring
583190-2B S29.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

CICS: MASTERING COM-
MAND LEVEL CODING US-
ING COBOL. By W. Bruno & L.
Bosland
583216-X S24.95

STEVE CIARCIA'S ASK BYTE.

By S. Ciarcia

881200-3 S14.95

MATHEMATICS FOR THE
ANALYSIS OF ALGO-
RITHMS. By D. H. Greene & D.
E. Knuth
582707-7 S14.95

THE MASTER HANDBOOK
OF HIGH-LEVEL MICROCOM-
PUTER LANGUAGES. By C.

Taylor

583096-5 S21.95

m

* 3 books for only $1.00 each ... if you join now for a
trial period and agree to purchase three more books —
at handsome discounts — during your first year of
membership. (Publishers' prices shown)

VIDEOTEX/TELETEXT. By A.

Alber

009/570B S32.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

CIARCIA'S CIRCUIT CELLAR
VOLUME V. By S. Ciarcia
109/697 S19.95

COMPUTER PERIPHERALS
FOR MINICOMPUTERS, MI-
CROPROCESSORS, AND
PERSONAL COMPUTERS. By

C. L Hohenstein

294/518B S36.50

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

PROGRAMMING WITH ADA:
An Introduction By Means of
Graduated Examples. By P.

Wegner

789/24XB S25.00

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

REAL-TIME COMPUTING:
With Applications to Data Ac-
quisition and Control. Edited
by D. A. Mellichamp
582844-8B S44.50

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

ASSEMBLERS, COMPILERS,
AND PROGRAM TRANSLA-
TION. By P. Calingaert
582110-9B S27.50

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

PASCAL FOR PROGRAM-
MERS. ByO.LeCarme&J. Nebut
369/585B S25.00

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

DISCRETE

By M. Marcus
582987-8

MATHEMATICS.

S19.95

DATABASE DESIGN, 2/e. By

G. Weiderhold

701/326B S38.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

INTERACTIVE MESSAGE
SERVICES. By D. Chorafas
108/501B S32.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

STRUCTURE & INTERPRE-
TATION OF COMPUTER PRO-
GRAMS. By H. Abelson & G.
Sussman

583258-5B S34.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

C PRIMER PLUS. By M. Waite,
S. Prata & D. Martin
583111-2B S29.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

THE UNIX PROGRAMMING
ENVIRONMENT. By B. Ker-
nighan & R. Pike

583007-8B S26.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

THE THEORY OF RELA-
TIONAL DATABASES. By D.

Maier

582986-XB S33.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

— More Books to Choose from —

LEARNING WITH LOGO.

By D. H. Watt

685/703 S22.95

MICROCOMPUTER AND
MICROPROCESSOR IN-
TERFACING. By J. C. Cluley
582585-6B S27.50

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

MICROPROCESSOR AND
MICROCOMPUTER DATA
DIGEST. By W. H. Buchs-
baum & G. Weissenberg
582835-9B S29.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

MICROPROCESSOR
DATA BOOK. By S. A.

Money

427/062B S35.00

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

BUILD YOUR OWN Z-80
COMPUTER. By S. Ciarcia
109/621 S22.95

MICROCOMPUTER IN-
TERFACING. By B. Artwick
789/436B S28.00

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

PRINCIPLES OF INTER-
ACTIVE COMPUTER
GRAPHICS, 2/e. By W. M.

Newman & R. Sproull
463/387B S41.95

(Counts as 2 of your 3 books)

MICROCOMPUTER OP-
ERATING SYSTEMS. By

M. Dahmke

150/710 S18.95

ELECTRONIC ENGI-

NEERS' HANDBOOK,

2/e. By D. G. Fink & D.

Christiansen

209/812A S83.50

(Counts as 3 of your 3 books)

Z80 USERS MANUAL. By

J. Carr

582336-5 S16.95

INTRODUCING THE UNIX
SYSTEM. By H. McGilton &
R. Morgan
450/013 S24.95

HANDS-ON BASIC For the
IBM® Personal Com-
puter. By H. Peckham
491/78X S23.95

Why YOU should join the Byte Book Club™ now!

# Best and newest books from ALL publishers! Books are selected
from a wide range of publishers by expert editors and consultants to
give you continuing access to the best and latest books in your field.

# Big savings! Buttd your library and save money too! Savings range
up to 30% or more off publishers' list prices — usually 20% to 25%.

# Bonus books! You will immediately begin to participate in our Bonus
Book Plan that allows you savings up to 70% off the publishers' prices
of many professional and general interest books!

# Convenience! 14-16 times a year (about once every 3-4 weeks) you
receive the Club Bulletin FREE. It fully describes the Main Selection

and alternate selections. A dated Reply Card is included. If you want
the Main Selection, you simply do nothing — it will be shipped auto-
matically. If you want an alternate selection — or no book at all — you
simply indicate it on the Reply Card and return it by the date specified.
You will have at least 10 days to decide. If, because of late delivery of
the Bulletin you receive a Main Selection you do not want, you may
return it for credit at the Club's expense.

As a Club member you agree only to the purchase of three addtional
books during your first year of membership. Membership may be dis-
continued by either you or the Club at any time after you have pur-
chased the three additional books.

Fill out the card and mail today! If the card is missing, write to:

BYTE BOOK CLUB,™ P.O. Box 582, Hightstown, New Jersey 08520-9959

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 353

A COMPUTER

PROGRAM

THAT SPEAKS

YOUR LANGUAGE

The Computer
Chronicles, a half-
hour weekly television
series brings you news
and information from
Silicon Valley
and a round the world.
Correspondent
Stewart Cheifet and
Gary Kildall, creator of
CP/M cover today's
headlines and the
stories behind them.
Find out what is, what
was and what will be,
with the only
computer program
you're ever going
to need. The
Computer
Chronicles,
every week on
a public tele-
vision station
near you.

(Check local listings for
time and channel.)

* ***»**" *•»./»+** I J I B —

Produced by KCSM, San Mateo, CA and WITF, Harrisburg, PA with funding from AFIPS and McGraw-Hill's KV I E magazine.

us

354 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 119

LETTERS

[continued from page 32)

Toward Better Benchmarks

In the August 1985 Fixes and Updates (page 33), you asked for
comments about using Fred Gruenberger's program from Scien-
tific American as a benchmark for numerical accuracy. Mr.
Gruenberger's article contains a serious error with respect to
running his program under Microsoft BASIC on an IBM PC (see
figure 2). Apparently he didn't realize that the exponentiation
operator in Microsoft BASIC is only a single-precision operator
like SIN(x). TAN(x). LOG(x), etc. Thus, to get double-precision
results you must load the double-precision functions by typing
BASICA/D when BASICA is initially loaded (see figure 3).

When used correctly, Microsoft BASIC produces exactly the
same result for 27 - y*y'sas it does for 27 - y A 2's and almost
the same answer for x~ (2 * 27). the error being in the ninth signifi-
cant figure. As a result, Mr. Gruenberger's test is relatively mean-

[continued]

A > BASICA

LOAD"B:ACCURACY

Ok

RUN

Method A gives

674530.4706120335

Method B gives

8850273

Method C gives

65536

Ok

Figure 2: Results of running Gruenberger's program as
published in BYTE.

system

A > BASICA/D

LOAD"B:ACCURACY

Ok

RUN

Method A gives 674530.4706120335

Method B gives 674530.4706120335

Method C gives 674530.4710014212

Ok

Figure 3 : Results using double-precision functions, BASICA/D.

Listing 2: Reader Allendoerfer's version of proposed
accuracy test.

LIST

10 REM BYTE Accuracy Test

20 DEFDBL X.Y.Z

30 X= 1. 0000001 #

40 Y = X:Z = X

50 FOR I - 1 TO 27

60 Y = Y*Y

70 Z = Z~2

80 NEXT I

90 PRINT "Method A gives";Y

100 PRINT "Method B gives";Z

110 PRINT "Method C gives";X~(2~27)

120 END

Ok

IDISEETTESI

; ! Ask about our monthly
I "SPECIAL"

51" Disks

S-SIDE -joQR
DDEN. lO« >

DSIDE HOQ5
D-DEN. IB??

96TPI ZO^?

"SE29S

KS39K
3£"Disk

ss.de 249 5

8" Disks

SSIDE ofNQj-
SDEN. 20^

SSlDE 0095
D-DEN. £ ^2?

DSIDE

D-DEN.

2750

maxell

SfDisks

SSIDE QQ5
D-DEN. y* 5 *

58 14V
SSf 199J

DSIDE w^
96TPI Z45V

'den" 28Z_ 5
3|"Disks

SSIDE 1849
DSIDE 269. 5

8 Disks

S-SIDE 0>1 95
DDEN. 24^-°

D-SIDE OA95
DDEN. ^O^

SONY.

3|Disks

S-SIDE 18^

DSIDE 28^

ATHANA

fc neper

"WET

BOX

95E? er

^=box

795

$29§o

$ 34^

Media Mate

$ 8 9 - 5 ea

+2°-° Shipping

SlDisks

gggHOS

DSIDE -IC9R
D-DEN. I04?

^2450
"den h 30«
3|Disks

SSIDE 19?5
D SIDE 27^

8" Disks

SSIDE -iriQC
SDEN. 19^?

S-SIDE OOCW
D-DEN Zo?2

DSIDE OTQR

DDEN.Z/^?

\ferbatim
5 J" Disks

S-SIDE ii75
DDEN. 1 I ^

DSIDE +AQR
DDEN. 14^

33 19*
ESS 245P

H d'e G N H 2995

3 1' Disk

SSIDE 18?^

8" Disks
|:g E D ri 1995

SSIDE 01Q5
D-DEN. ^1^?

DSIDE
D-DEN

Old Reliable m

e Disi<ette^

Connection™

2 4?_5

* Delaware 1-800-451-1849

RO. Box 10247 Wilmington, DE. 19850

^Oklahoma 1 800 654-4058

RO. Box 1674 Bethany.OK. 73008

♦Nevada 1 800-621 -6221

R a Box 1 2 1 3 Boulder City, NV. 89005

TERMS'* Minimum 20 disks or $35°-° — VISA or MasterCard accepted
COD. orders add 2^ for special handling. SHIPPING^ 3 1 / 2 '& 5 1 ^" Diskettes;
Add 3°-° for every 100 Diskettes or any fraction thereof. 8"Diskettes; Add
4°£ for every 100 Diskettes or any fraction thereof. We ship UPS; orders
requiring other delivery methods add shipping, plus 2% of total order.

KEYPATCH™ -10 - A full travel mini-keyboard.
Plugs between keyboard connector and CPU.
Automatically activates NUM-LOCK placing your
IBM™ keyboard into the number pad mode while
KEYPATCH™ -10 provides separate cursor and
screen control functions without the use of the
NUM-LOCK key. Saves time — eliminates errors.
KEYPATCH™ -10 requires no software. A must
for spread sheets; word processing; graphics; etc.

For Immediate Shipment IBM PC/XT $84."

Genest Technologies, Inc. Compatibles* $89. 98

1331 E. Edinger Ave.
Santa Ana, Calif. 92705

(714) 547-0880

'"Patents Pending

KEYPATCH'" is a trademark of Genest Technologies. Inc

IBM'" is a trademark of International Business Machines Corp.

'Zenith - ITT - Columbia - NCR

Leading Edge - Sperry - Desk Pro

- PLEASE SPECIFY SYSTEM-

(Cal. Res. Add 6% Sales Tax)

Visa. Master Card, Check. Money Order

Plus S2 M Shipping

Inquiry 381 for End-Users.
Inquiry 382 for DEALERS ONLY.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 355

LETTERS

ingless to 10 significant figures, and a more informative test ought
to be found before BYTE adopts one. Unfortunately, I don't have
any better suggestions.

My version of your proposed accuracy test (see listing 2) runs
under BASICA and BASICA/D to illustrate my point.

Robert D. Allendoerfer
East Amherst, NY

Defining Relationships in Pick

I read with interest "Pick, Coherent, and THEOS" by Marc J.
Rochkind in Inside the IBM PCs (page 231). Mr. Rochkind gave a
favorable review of Pick on the IBM PC XT in areas I consider
to be critical to the acceptance of an operating system.

It was a shame that Mr. Rochkind could not spend more time
with Pick. I believe that he would have had even higher praise
had he done so. With the understanding that he spent limited
time with Pick, I still feel obligated to point out the following
incorrect assumption that Mr. Rochkind asserted.

His article goes on to say that Pick cannot do a relational join
unless the item IDs (keys) to the records of the two files in ques-
tion are equivalent. If this were true, it would be a true limita-
tion to proper database design. As a matter of fact, relation-
ships can be defined where records in a file can be accessed
from records in another file, provided that the key to the accessed
record is stored somewhere in the other file. Then, fields from
this "joined" record can be accessed for reporting, etc. The
record keys for these two files need not be identical.

As an example, a database might contain two files, a mailing-
list address file and a zip code file. The address file does not
contain city or state, but the zip code file does contain city and
state. A dictionary definition of "city" for the mailing-address
file would look at the zip code field in the address records, read
the record from the zip code file whose key is the zip code on
the address file, and retrieve the city field. I am ignoring in this
example zip codes that pertain to more than one city.

Howard M. Reses
Abington, PA

Marc ]. Rochkind replies:

Thanks to Mr. Reses for pointing this out

Speaking of Languages

I am a professional programmer who writes mainly in assembly
language. I have done a considerable amount of high-level coding
as well. I have noted several trends in high-level languages that
disturb me greatly enough to wonder where the "computer
revolution" is going next. My language experience is mainly in
BASIC, Pascal, and C.

BASIC, despite snobs who snub it, is by far the most readable
language around, except, perhaps, for COBOL. BASIC'S plain
English syntax is easy to learn, easy to remember, and, most
important, easy to type. The major problem with BASIC is not
GOTO statements but line numbers. Line numbers prevent BASIC

[continued)

BYTE

back issues for sale

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

Jan.

S3.25

S3.70

S4.25

S4.25

S4.25

Feb.

S3.25

S3. 70

S3. 70

S4.25

S4.25

March

S3. 70

S3. 70

S4.25

S4.25

April

S3.25

S3. 70

S3. 70

S4.25

S4.25

May

S3. 70

S3. 70

S4.25

S4.25

June

S3. 70

S3. 70

S4.25

S4.25

July

S3. 70

S4.25

S4.25

Aug.

S3. 70

S4.25

S4.25

S4.25

Sept.

S3. 70

S4.25

S4.25

S4.25

Oct.

S3.25

S3. 70

S4.25

S4.25

$4.25

Nov.

S3.25

S3. 70

S4.25

S4.25

S4.25

Dec.

S3.25

S3. 70

S4.25

S4.25

S4.25

Circle and send requests with payments to:
BYTE Back Issues
P.O. Box 328
Hancock, NH 03449

Prices include postage in the US. Please add S .50 per
copy for Canada and Mexico; and S2.00 per copy to
foreign countries (surface delivery).

Payments from foreign countries must be made in
US funds payable at a US bank.

□ Check enclosed □ VISA □ MasterCard

Card #
Exp. _

SPECIAL ISSUES and INDEX

BYTE '83-'84 INDEX

$1.75

1984 Special Guide to IBM PC's

(Vol

9, No. 9)

$4.75

1985 INSIDE THE IBM PCs [Vol.

10,

No. 11) '

$4.75

Signature

Please allow 4 weeks for domestic delivery and \2
weeks for foreign delivery.

NAME

ADDRESS
CITY

STATE

ZIP

356 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Someone new has just entered
the world of programming.

Now, everyone can program their com-
puter. Because now, there's ALICE to show
you the way.

ALICE: The Personal Pascal... the first
complete programming environment that
lets you create your own sophisticated
Pascal programs, while teaching you how.

Much More Than a Pascal Compiler

ALICE knows the syntax and the rules of
Pascal . . . changing programming from
what was once a slow, complex task to
simply a matter of selecting the appro-
priate templates, and merely filling in the
blanks. You can't make a frustrating syntax
error. ALICE won't let you.

The Programming System With a
Difference

ALICE has a unique Pascal interpreter that
lets you run - and debug - your programs
directly. You can actually see your program
executing. And the programs that you
develop with ALICE can be used with your
Pascal compiler.

Help at Your Fingertips

All the information you'll ever need from
ALICE. A tutorial, features of Pascal, and
the meaning of error messages is now at
hand ... in over 500 screens of on-line HELP.
Let ALICE be the Teacher
ALICE is currently being used in hundreds
of schools to teach Pascal programming.
Why Pascal? Because it has emerged as
the language of choice of colleges and
universities and is now the official lan-
guage of the SAT examinations.

ALICE Offers More!

• windows, menus, and function keys . . .
easy.

• "undo" feature to take back mistakes . . .
forgiving.

• screen control, color highlighting, and
macros . . . powerful.

Now you'll program intelligently,
accurately, almost intuitively . . . with ALICE.
To order by credit card, call 1-800- 448-
3400 ext. AUCE (In Canada 1-800-387-
9018). Specify software or demonstra-
tion diskette. Or, fill in the order form
and send to:

SOmVAREX X

CHWSf^LS

Software Channels Inc.

Four Kingwood Place, Kingwood,

Texas 77339 (713) 359-1024

Canada and International:

212 King Street West,

Toronto. Canada M5H 1K5 (416) 591-9131

ALICE

Inquiry 300 The Personal Pascal*

For IBM PC, XT, AT and compatibles.

Name:

Address:.
City:

_State:_

_ZipCode:_

Telephone: ( )_

Number of Copies:.

.Machine Memory (K):_

_@ $95.00 (Canada $129.00)=.

□ Demonstration Diskette: Shipping/handling $4.95 (Canada $5.95)=

Payment: VISA □ AMEXD MCD Check D Money Order □ Bank Draft □
Credit Card Expiry Date: /

creditcardNumbernnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Signature:

ALICE: The Personal Pascal software prices include shipping and handling to the U.S. and Canada. COD's
will not be accepted. Texas residents add 6We% sales tax. Ontario residents add 7% sales tax.
Dealer and distributor inquiries welcome. Site licences available.

LETTERS

from being a "real" language. Variations of BASIC that are free
of line numbers are a joy to use.

Pascal can best be described as "elegant." It is almost as
readable as BASIC and doesn't have line numbers. Pascal's prob-
lem is that it wasn't ever intended to be a complete language,
and thus it lacks many features of C, BASIC or its successor.
Modula-2. Indeed. Modula-2 is what Pascal should have been
in the first place; it will probably become my language of choice.

C is a mess. C is a disaster. C is a language that should never
have existed. C is unquestionably powerful, but no more so than
Modula-2. The problem with C can be summed up in one word:
syntax. C's syntax is by far the "dirtiest" in the entire computer
world. C is cryptic to the extreme and totally unreadable. There
are several reasons for this, none of which are good. C came
from the same people that brought us UNIX, probably the most
flexible operating system in existence, but that is all that can
be said for it.

C has another fault: lowercase letters. There is a school of
thought that programs are more readable if they are written en-
tirely in lowercase letters. I do not subscribe to this school of
thought. To me. uppercase letters are by far the more readable.
However, to each his own. The problem is that many C com-
pilers allow only lowercase letters, forcing me to run all my source
code through an upper-to-lower filter before compilation, every
time! This is a stupid oversight in that it is the most trivial of
trivial routines to convert all input to the desired case internal
to the compiler.

C has become popular mainly because of hype and the fact
that it is a powerful language once you become accustomed to
its cryptic syntax. As an ALGOL descendant, it shares some com-
mon faults with Pascal and Modula-2.

I must say a word about ALGOL descendants in general.
ALGOL descendants include C. Pascal, and Modula-2. Despite
my liking for Pascal and Modula-2, their design philosophy is
all wrong. This is Niklaus Wirth's philosophy that compilers
should be kept as simple as possible. Balderdash! On the other
hand, neither do I think a compiler should be overly complex.
There is a middle road. ALGOL-descendant compilers are just
a little too simple. I am referring to double delimiters for many
language statements. The parentheses in many statements are
superfluous; the variable or quoted string has enough built-in
delimiters to separate it from the rest of the program statement.
You certainly don't need both a slash (or a parenthesis) and an
asterisk to delimit comments; one or the other will do. My pet
peeve: semicolons! Each line has built-in delimiter, a CR-LF pair
built right into it. without need of the semicolons. All of this
forces me to work for the compiler, instead of the compiler work-
ing for me.

I have written code for practically every microprocessor known
to man, from the 4004 through the 68000. There is no basis in
fact for the statement that "assembly language is obsolete." There
is a place for both high-level languages and assembly language.

Mark D. Pickerill
Salinas, CAM

DRIVE ENCLOSURES

FLOPPY-WINCHESTER-TAPE
FROM *80°°

(Includes Power Supply)

"^*
*"*>*

Write or call for our brochure which includes our application note:
"Making micros, better than any ol' box computer"

• Desktop & Rack

• Heavy Duty All Metal Cabinet

• Fan & Dust Filter*

• Hefty Power Supplies

• Full or Slim Drives

• Power Harness From Supply To
Drives

•Line Fuse, EMI Filter*,
Detachable Line Cord

• Cabinets & Supplies Available
Separately

• = Most Models (Disk drives not included)

RESEARCH CORPORATION
8620 Roosevelt Ave./Visalla, CA 93291
209/651-1203

32 Page Free Fakt Pakt Catalog

358 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry I67

ASCII and
you shall receiwi

Just tell us what you want. Price? The WY-30, right out front, makes your system look
and feel like a million bucks for $399. Flat screen, crisp 80-column display, Touch-Tilt, 41
programmable functions.

Heavy duty applications? The WY-50, at $599, is the industry's favorite for a lot
of good reasons. 132 columns, tilt/swivel, 16 dedicated function keys.

Even more sophistication? The WY-50+, at $699, packs top-end functionality:
multi-page memory, variable length function keys, bidirectional auxiliary port, and so on.

Color? The WY-350 gives you full WY-50 emulation plus 64 colors, 16
palettes for $1195.

All our ASCII terminals share the exclusive Wyse keyboard layout, 26-line screen,
and across-the-board software compatibility, so you have complete design flexibility. Users
can move from one Wyse terminal to another without relearning or reprogramming.

No matter what you ASCII for, your answer is Wyse. Call us today.

Inquiry 362

WYSE

Call800-GET-WYSE

WHILE

YOU WERE

GONE,

GUESS WfiAT
HIT THE

When your business takes you away from the office, you'd like to think that
everything's still under control. The sad truth is that your absence has probably led
to confusion, disorder, and a fair amount of corporate mayhem.
So you've got two choices. You can rely on positive thinking. Or you can call

your office every hour, just to check up on things. Which
guarantees you nothing but a Christmas card from the
phone company.

But now there's a solution. It's called Cue™
The new nationwide messaging service from
DiversiCom.

With Cue you're free to go wherever your
business takes you. Whether it's 30 miles away. Or 300.
Or 3,000. Without ever missing another message again.
Here's how it works. For someone
to reach you through Cue, all they need
is a touch tone telephone. They simply
enter your Cue access code and the mes-
sage on the phone. And you'll know in seconds who
wants to close a deal. Or, heaven forbid, get out of one.
Small and easy to carry, your Cue receiver can store
■ q / -m -y /^ up to six 12-digit messages. Plus it has a clear button

l-H^k I^L / to erase messages from the display. And an on/off /tone
I /"^l ^1 ' switch that lets you choose when you want to receive
* messages, and whether or not you want an audible alert.
Of course, giving you the freedom to roam at will isn't the only thing that dis-
tinguishes Cue from an ordinary paging system.

Because even if you turn off your Cue receiver you can still get all your messages.
Through our 800 number message center that stores your messages until you're
ready to hear them. All you do is make one phone call and they'll be verbally relayed
back to you. With complete security, of course.

What it comes down to is, no other messaging system can
offer you what Cue can. Like saving money on your long-
distance phone bill. And the security of knowing you'll never
miss another message again. Whether you're traveling across
the country or across town.

Just call 1-800-228-5850, and let us put you in touch with
your local Cue paging company. They can get you hooked up
to Cue in no time at all.

That way when things start happening back at the office,
you won't be the last to know;

Inquiry 18

CUE

The Nationwide Messaging Service from DiversiCom.

Because you cant be missed when youre going places.

DiversiCom, 3200 Park Center Drive, Costa Mesa, Calif ornia 92626 1-800-228-5850

Alaska and Nebraska call 1-800-426-5890 ext. 2850.

DiversiCom. A unit of American Diversified Capita! Corporation.
©1985 American Diversified Capital Corporation.

I

For Taxable W Ending 12/84
SECURITY DEFINITION

icker Open *-
uabo! Date Share:

838728 180 11,875 44.25 1231.75 5.250 525.88 48. B8 485.80

iDAC 838729 188 14.125 48.35 1459.45 5.25 525.80 40.88 485.88

IDAC 848119 58 7.625 40.08 611.88 5.25 393.75 40.00 353.75

WBR 838882 58 25.508 45.30 1328.38 11.75 587.58 40.00 547.50

1

CM-1370

13" RGBI

line resolution.

CM-1360

13" RGBI
High Resolutic
16 color displc

CM-1322

MM-1222

PICTURES PERFECT.

Tatung monitors. What you get
is more than what you see. What you
see is a picture of startling clarity
A picture that's sharp, clear, and crisp,
whether color or monochromatic
The kind of picture you can
sit in front of for hours.
A Tatung picture.
What you can't see, yj|

but will feel, is Tatung value.
Dollar for dollar, feature for feature,
you'll look a long time for a better,
more capable, IBM compatible monitor,
regardless of what kind of system
you'll use it with. For more
information and specifi-
cations, call or write
for our brochure.

For complete information call (213) 979-7055.

TATUNG COMPANY OF AMERICA, INC. 2850 El Presidio Street, Long Beach, California 90810

In Northern California, call (408) 435-0140.

TATUNG SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, INC. 780 Charcot Ave., San Jose, California 95131.

Tatung Company of America, Inc. is a subsidiary of Tatung Company, Taipei, R.O.C.

362 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1 986

Inquiry 320 for End-Users. Inquiry 32I for DEALERS ONLY.

BEST OF BIX 'BEST OF BIX * BeIf QF BIX

EIX

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

AMIGA

Commodore's introduction of the Amiga has produced a flurry of activ-
ity among professional developers and personal computer users within
the Amiga conference. The summary this month includes discussion on
cables, monitors, printers, and software fixes. One of the hottest topics
in the Amiga conference is on the subject of improving the perfor-
mance of the Amiga by removing the 68000 and replacing it with a
68010 or 68020.

68010/68020 Upgrade

amiga/amiga68000 #22

An Amiga conference member asked if he could just drop a 68010 into
the 68000 socket. This would give a 10 to 80 percent boost in perfor-
mance! He had one, just sitting up to its bottom in black foam, on the
shelf. But there were all these warnings about what would happen to
his warranty if he opened the case.

amiga/amiga68000 #26, from rickross [Richard Ross, Eidetic Imaging]

M68010 works! A 68010 plugs directly into the Amiga and no problems
were detected in the operation of the system software. Also, for
everyone like me who has been trying to judge from the BYTE review
photos, the microprocessor is socketed. The performance increase
gained by the switch is not phenomenal, and no benchmarks are
available, but it did run perceptibly faster. The M68020 has also been
tried and seems to work as well.

amiga/amiga68000 #32

A BIX user provides the following:

The company that markets the 68020 piggyback board is Computer
System Associates Inc., 7564 Trade St., San Diego, CA 92121, (619)
566-3911. The prices are:

Board only

$ 575

Board plus 68020

975

Board plus 68020 and 68881

1480

For more information, contact Patricia Chouinard at the address above.
I believe that 68000/68010 supervisor code that handles exceptions
and certain other privileged functions will have to be modified. User
code should work as is.

amiga/tech.talk #39

An Amiga owner describes his adventure in opening his computer and
replacing the CPU:

You just got your Amiga and it's already the slow boy on the block,
right? You can plug a 68010 into an Amiga (there goes my warranty)
and it does go faster My Sieve benchmark is down to 5.8 seconds
from 6.1.

Note: Your warranty will most likely be dead after you do this. Also,
there is a lot of RFI shielding inside the Amiga. You get to undo a lot of
screws, bend a couple of tabs, and pray a lot. If you aren't a tech type,
don't even think about doing this yourself. The 68000 is socketed, but it
is partially under the micro-disk drive, so you have to lift it from one
end and kind of levitate out the other end (use of your CHI helps).
Also, you only take out the screws in the deep wells on the bottom (five
in all). Then there are four places where the top grabs the base at the
four corners (there were already marks on mine from where it was put
together, I guess). Once you have the top off there is a big surprise

waiting for you . . . Another big surprise is that big RFI shield. Yes, it is
a $#%+& to get off! There are screws on three sides and two tabs of
metal to untwist. Once the shielding is out of the way, your first sight is
of the WCS [writable control store] daughterboard. The custom chips
and two parallel I/O chips are made with MOS technology.

The CPU is made by Motorola. The main board looks pretty much
like the BYTE review photos. The boot ROMs are 27256s! This gives a
32K-byte by 16- bit boot ROM! What are you guys hiding in there? I
could put a BASIC interpreter in that much space!

If you attempt to change your CPU, don't blame me if you muff it! If
you don't know about how to make yourself static-free, you could really
buy yourself some trouble of the worst kind.

Compatibility: I've run all of the Workbench demos. Everything seems
fine, but I'm not making any promises. . .

amiga/tech.talk #41

The adventurous Amiga owner says that yes, his Amiga boots up,
squeaks and everything! All the software he has runs and works great.
The only potential problem at this point is how many times the MOVE
SR.dest op code is used. This is the only active op-code difference.
There is a whole host of new goodies, though, some that make a .
desire for an MC68881 easier to satisfy.

amiga/tech.talk #43:
a comment to 39

Another BIX subscriber replied that the upgrade produced only a 5
percent increase in throughput. Perhaps fortunate, because the
descriptions of the hardware here have indicated that bus bandwidth
consumption by the 68000 is low enough to allow other custom DMA
chips to steal enough cycles to get their work done. It would appear
that inserting a 68020 in the socket would require faster bimmers, etc.

amiga/tech.talk #44:
a comment to 43

Wouldn't think just putting in a 68020 would affect DMA. Same clock
speed. Or does the '20 do something different cycle-wise?

amiga/tech.talk #45:
a comment to 44

The author of message 43 replied that the 68020 at the same clock
speed will finish an instruction or series of instructions internal to the
CPU in less time and start requesting the bus for some ROM or RAM
access. He assumed that the DMA chips hold a higher bus priority, so
the result will be that the 68020 will often be sitting there in idle
awaiting the BUSACK signal. Waste of a 68020. Perhaps that explains
why there is only a 5 percent 68010 edge over the 68000.

amiga/tech.talk #46:
a comment to 45

Somebody said that the 68000 only uses every other clock cycle (for
memory access, that is). The DMA hardware is fast enough to do four
accesses during every clock cycle. Most of the DMA accesses the bus
during periods when the 68000 doesn't. If the 68020 doesn't have
these quiet periods then there could be problems.

amiga/tech.talk #47:
a comment to 46

Actually, there is a counterargument to that, which is that the 68020,
but not the 68010, has an instruction-only cache, which would mean

{continued)

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 363

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

EIX

• Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

that, in the long run, it would not use the bus anywhere near as much
as it should otherwise. So the 68020 is definitely still in the running with
some surrounding hardware.

amiga/tech.talk #49:
a comment to 44

The adventurous Amiga owner replied that the MC68020 uses 3-cycle
memory accesses instead of 4-cycle. No problem if you dont mind a
wait state. . .

amiga/tech.talk #50:
a comment to 47

The adventurous owner added that the MC68010 does have "loop-
mode," which works like the MC68020 "cache" for certain op codes. He
wanted to really wring his chip out and get some numbers, but his
tools to do so were highly limited.

amiga/tech.talk #55, from duck [Dale Luck, Commodore-Amiga]:
a comment to 41

The Exec function GetCC( ) is provided for those that need to get at
the condition code register of the 68000. This call is guaranteed to
work on a 68000/68010/68020.

There are a couple of areas where the 68010 can cause trouble. The
current Exec processes address/bus errors in a 68000-only manner.
Calling Supervisor while in Supervisor mode causes the generation of
a 68000-style interrupt stack frame. This should not cause any prob-
lems for applications since they are all run in User mode. To date we
have not seen any code that calls Supervisor) ) while in Supervisor
mode.

amiga/tech.talk #57, from duck:
a comment to 55

I mistyped some of my comment. There is a function call in Exec that
puts you into Supervisor mode and then executes some code that you
pointed to with some address register. This is the function that I am
referring to as Supervisor) ). The last thing that this code is supposed
to do is an rte. That is why a stack frame is hand-constructed when
already in Supervisor mode. It turns out not to be a problem because
the Amiga designers decided to just let the 68000 create the stack
frame by executing a supervisor-privileged instruction. This scheme
works regardless of what kind of processor you are running on.

Software

amiga/tutorial #83, from rjm [R. J. Mical, Commodore-Amiga]

TITLE: Intuition Changes

Thought you folks might like to know in advance what's coming with

the V1.1 release of Intuition.

The horrible requester flash problem is resolved. When you call
RefreshGadgets( ) for the gadgets of a requester, they quietly and
gently redraw themselves now.

VANILLAKEY: A new event through the IDCMR which allows you to
get keyboard events translated into the default character keymap of the
Console Device (the default in the U.S. is ASCII).

INTUITICKS: Allows you to get timer messages 10 times a second,
more or less evenly spaced, whenever yours is the active window.
There may be more, but I think that's all (not including bug fixes).

amiga/softw.devlpmt #389, from cheath [Charlie Heath, Microsmiths]

Converting Text Files, PC <> Amiga

The next two messages contain C programs that convert text files be-

tween IBM and Amiga. They run on the Amiga and can be compiled
using the execute file below:

.Key file

Id - idf 1 :include/ -idfl: include/lattice/ -oram: <file$t1>

if not exists "ram:<file$t1 >.q"

echo "Compile failed."

quit 20

endif
Ic2 ram:<file$t1>

alink df1:lib/lstartup.obj,ram:<file$t1 > .o LIB
df1:lib/lc.lib,df1:lib/amiga.lib
TO ram:<file$t1>

amiga/softw.devlpmt #390, from cheath

J**************************************************

* ibmtxt.c

* This program will convert an Amiga text file so that it can be used

* on an IBM PC. It may also be used for printers that require a

* Carriage Return/Line Feed, rather than just Line Feed, which the

* Amiga provides.

* The program uses stdin and stdout. For instance:

* ibmtxt <inputfile >outputfile */

#include "lattice/stdio.h"

main()

{

int c;

while((c = getchar()) != EOF) {

if (c = = OxOa)
putchar(OxOd);

putchar(c);

}
}
/*** End of program ibmtxt.c ***/

amiga/softw.devlpmt #391, from cheath

<**•••••••••*•••••••**•••••••••••••••••**•••••**•••

* amigatxtc

* This program will convert an IBM text file so that it can be used

* on the Amiga.

* The program uses stdin and stdout. For instance:

* amigatxt <inputfile >outputfile

* (Use Convert and Read to get file from IBM to Amiga */

#include "lattice/stdio.h"
main( )

{

int c;

while( (c = getchar()) != EOF && c != 0x1 A) {
if ( c ! = OxOd )

putchar(c);
}

}

/*** End of program amigatxtc ***/

amiga/softw.devlpmt #265

An Amiga user asks:

When a diskcopy is performed to, say, back up the Workbench disk,
is some time stamp or other feature updated on the new disk so that

{continued)

364 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Why look like
the average manager?

X

At last there is software that
puts you ahead of the pack.

SuperProject Plus.™ The man-
agement advantage.

We have refined the effective
techniques of project manage-
ment into an unprecedented tool
for complete management control,
From planning an audit, sched-
uling a new product, budgeting an
ad campaign to managing the pro-
duction of a Broadway musical.

At a level any manager can
understand. From begin-
ner to expert.
SuperProject Plus is
the first micro
software that lets
you see how all
the elements you
manage - your people,
projects, budgets,
schedules and
resources -re-
late to and affect
each other.

SuperProjectPlus
can improve perfor-
mance on any level.

So you can
plan ahead with confidence. Iden-
tify potential problem areas and
take corrective action before it's

m

Super

too late. Compare your actual
performance against your plans.
And never be surprised by a dead-
line again.

■ ; ; ;

Now you 11 have the ammunition you need
to make better decisions.

SuperProject Plus will help
you optimize resources. Take on
greater challenges. Manage more
intelligently.

In short, be a better manager.

ible ^^^W har .

Yes

Why rely on hit-or- miss
management?

You can even directly transfer
your information
into SuperCalc®3
Release 2,
Lotus® 1-2-3,®
dBase™ and
other leading
software for
more detailed
financial analysis
and business
reports.

SuperProjectPlus.
From Computer Asso-
ciates, the world's
most experienced busi-
ness software maker.
With a list of satisfied
customers that includes over
80% of the Fortune 1000.
For the whole story on
SuperProject Plus for the
IBM PC, call Terry Smith at
1-800-645-3003.

Or see
your dealer.
You'll wonder how
you ever managed without it.

(Computer

StSSOCIATES

Software superior by design.

Inquiry 307

J'H get
back to you

Perhaps

The way is C4.

© 1985 ComputerAssociatesInternation.il. Inc. SuperCalc is a registered trademark, and SuperProject a trademark of Computer Associates International, Inc. Lotus and
1-2-3 are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corp. dBASE is a trademark of AshtonTate.

Computer Associates productivity software: SuperCalc w 3 Release 2; SupcrCalc*3a: SuperProject"; EasyWriter II* System; EasyPlanner'"; EasyFiler'"; EasySales Pro.'
EasyBusiiiess Systems'" accounting software: EasyPlus"*; Easyl'lus'" Network Manager; General Ledger and Financial Reporter; Accounts Payable; Accounts Receivable
Inventory Control and Analysis; Order Entry; Payroll; Retail Invoicing; 'lime, Billing, and Client Receivables; Job Costing.

Best of BIX •Best of BIX • Best of BIX •

BIX

• Best of BIX • best of BIX • Best of BIX

no two Workbench disks are alike? I ask this because if I back up the
disk and then place the copy into dfO: and type directory, the system
gets all confused and says please insert volume Workbench, even
though that's what the disk is called. The only way to make the system
recognize the new disk is to reboot. Is this a bug, or a protection
feature so that you don't use two disks with the same name at the
same time?

amiga/softw.devlpmt #270, from pariseau [Bob Pariseau,

Commodore-Amiga]:

a comment to 265

Yes, we serialize the disks so that the system can tell the difference be-
tween two disks with the same name. This keeps it from writing direc-
tory info to the wrong disk, for instance. Note that if you have two disks
made in a duplicator (not an Amiga), the system will not be able to tell
them apart. Swapping Workbench disks is a bit tricky, since the system
looks for libraries and such according to the current ASSIGNS for
LIBS:, etc.

Swapping a disk other than your boot disk should be easy. Just
change your current directory so that commands like DIR won't look for
the old disk by default.

Cables

amiga/softw.devlpmt #249

An Amiga user posts the following:

Serial Cable Warning

The serial port connector on the Amiga has more on it than just stan-
dard serial pin-out. If you connected all pins (or too many actually), you
would likely burn the unit connected to the Amiga. Amiga pin-out: 1)
GND, 2) TXD, 3) RXD, 4) RTS, 5) CTS, 6) DSR, 7) SYSTEM GND, 8) CD,
20) DTR, and 22) Rl.

Editor's note: The following pins differ from the RS-232C standard:

Pin 21 RS-232C (SQD) is +5 V on Amiga.

Pin 23 RS-232C (SS) is + 12 V on Amiga.

Pin 24 RS-232C (TXC1) is 3.58-MHz clock on Amiga.

Pin 15 RS-232C (TXC) is Audio Out of Amiga.

Pin 16 RS-232C (S.RXD) is Audio In to Amiga.

Pin 14 RS-232C (TXC) is -5 V on Amiga.

Use caution when configuring cables for the serial port

4)D3
5)D4
6)D5
7)D6
8)D7
9)D8

Centronics pin-outs:

1) -STROBE

2) D1
3)D2
4)D3
5)D4
6)D5
7)06'
8)D7
9)D8

10) -ACK

11) BUSY

12) PO

13) SEL

14) -AUTO FEED

15) -ERROR

16) -PRIME

17) -SEL IN

18) GND

13) SEL

14) -AUTO FEED

15) NC

16) GND

17) CHASSIS

18) NC

19) GND/1

20) GND/2

21) GND/3

22) GND/4

23) GND/5

24) GND/6

22) GND

23) GND

24) GND

25) GND

25) GND/7

26) GND/8

27) GND/9

28) GND/10

29) GND/11

30) GND/1 2

31) -PRIME

32) -ERROR

33) -GND

34) NC

35) NC

36) -SEL IN

Amiga-to-IBM connection— Make sure you don't connect the +5 line
to ground!
Amiga-to-Centronics connection:

1/13 ~> 1/13
14/22 -> 19/27
25 -> 31

(Make sure you don't connect the +5 line to GND!)

amiga/softw.devlpmt #248, from rickross

TITLE: How Is It Done?

Does anyone out there who is using an IBM as a cross-development
system for Amiga have the exact pin-outs required for the serial cable
used to connect the two machines? I think I am ready to start transfer-
ring some files over, but I have been told not to use a ribbon cable, so
what do I use? Also, can someone give me (or point me to) some
specific information about how to upload source files onto BIX. Once I
can get from Amiga to IBM, I will load up some modest examples of
how I am using the translate/narrate combination to read text files in C
Crunch, you should consider placing your sprite editor up here in
similar form. I bet it would be a really useful icebreaker for a lot of us
just starting into Amiga graphics.

amiga/product.dcsn #187, from pariseau
TITLE: Parallel Port Connection Info

Amiga pin-outs:

1) -STROBE

10) -ACK

19) GND/6

2)D1

11) BUSY

20) GND/7

3)D2

12) PO

21) GND/8

4)D3

13) SEL

22) GND/9

5)D4

14) GND/1

23) +5

6)D5

15) GND/2

24) NC

7)D6

16) GND/3

25) RESET-BAR

8)D7

17) GND/4

9)D8

18) GND/5

IBM pin-outs:

1) -STROBE

10) -ACK

19) GND

2)D1

11) BUSY

20) GND

3)D2

12) PO

21) GND

366 BYTE •

FEBRUARY 1986

amiga/softw.devlpmt #251, from cheath:
a comment to 248

You need four wires between machines plus must fake out IBM CD,
etc.
Here is my cable:

1...1
2... 3
3... 2
7. ..7

Plus, on IBM side, connect 4 and 5 together, and connect 6, 8, and 20
together.

Monitors

amiga/tech.talk #115, from pariseau

Typical specs for a monitor that will work are:

{continued)

the od

ontinues . . .

APRIL 3-6, 1986

MOSCONE CENTER

SAN FRANCISCO

Don't miss the best show

of 86!

The biggest, most important, most
exciting, public computer event on
the West Coast will take place at
the 11th West Coast Computer
Faire. People who are vitally
interested in computers will be
there. Join us at the show that
makes the difference!

See thousands of computer products
exhibited by hundreds of leading and
innovative companies.

Touch the future with hands-on
demonstrations.

Learn from the experts. The

comprehensive conference program
attracts industry speakers and com-
puter users from business, education,
government and scientific, engineering
and research communities.

Take advantage of low cost Profes-
sional Development Seminars.

Get FREE one-on-one consulting help.

Save money with incredible "special
show pricing" on all kinds of products.

Send in for more information:

Please send me information on attendee
preregistration discounts.

Name

Company
Street _
City/Town
Phone

State

Zip

I would like to fl Attend f] Exhibit

Send this coupon to:

The 11th West Coast Computer Faire

181 Wells Avenue

Newton, MA 02159

You can call us at (617) 965-8350.

B

An exclusive production of Computer Faire, Inc. /A Prentice-Hall Company

Inquiry 379

FEBRUARY 1 986 • BYTE 367

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

EIX

• Best of BIX * Best of BIX • Best of BIX

RGB analog: 0.7 V, 75 ohm terminated

Frequency bandwidth greater than 15 MHz

Frame rate: NTSC-compatible 60 Hz (30 Hz interlaced)

Horizontal scan frequency: 15.7 kHz

Pixel dot pitch less than 0.43

The monitor should be a "dot triad" monitor rather than a "slot"
design. A slot monitor, a larger than speed dot pitch, or a smaller than
speed bandwidth will cause smearing of color patterns or moire effects.

The electrical specs, frame rate, and scan frequency are required for
proper performance. Some CAD-style 60-Hz noninterlaced monitors will
have a higher scan frequency (only) and will cause an Amiga image to
"shear"

Many monitors designed primarily as composite video monitors
(basically home TV sets without the channel tuner part) will have a
lower bandwidth and will cause fuzzy images. Get the highest band-
width and the lowest dot pitch that you can afford.

amiga/main #647, from bwebster [Bruce Webster,
Contributing Editor, BYTE]

Due to a set of circumstances too involved to go into here, I ended up
buying a Sony KV-25XBR monitor/receiver. I've already run the Amiga
composite output into it, and I find 80-column text quite readable; a lit-
tle uncomfortable to read, but no more so than the 80-column text in
graphics mode on my Compaq. Would one of you very kind folks at
Amiga like to patch up an RGB cable for me, so I can comment in my
column about how good that looks, too?

amiga/main #648, from pariseau:
a comment to 647

Now Bruce, how are you going to impart the real flavor of owning a
computer to your readers if you have someone else make your cables
for you? (grini) Seriously, though, making an RGB cable is pretty
durned easy.

Refer to the pin-outs in the back of the "Intro to Amiga" manual. Pins
3, 4, and 5 go to your monitor R, G, and B (analog) inputs. You must
also connect a sync signal. Probably pin 10 (composite sync) is best,
but your monitor might just want pins 11 and 12 for Hsync and Vsync.
Our plug has grounds on pins 16-20. You might want to run these over
to the signal grounds on your monitor (or not, if you're getting lazy).

Do not connect any of the other Amiga pins to your monitor. When
facing the rear of your Amiga, pins 1-12 run from left to right across
the top row of the connector. Pins 13-23 run from left to right along the
bottom row. If you forget, just look into the connector with a strong
flashlight and you'll see the numbers printed in the black plastic at the
base of the pins.

The trickiest part of all of this is finding a 23-pin D connector to plug
into the Amiga. Most folks take a 25-pin D connector (which is a
garden variety RS-232C ASCII terminal connector) and snip off the side
that would have pin 25 in it.

amiga/tech.talk #111, from jdow [Joanne Dow]:
a comment to 110

The KV-1311CR is not large compared to most color TVs today. It is a
13-inch very square screen with uncannily good contrast, color
balance, and resolution. I just bought one and have to purchase the
connectors for mating purposes. Right now I am running NTSC video
in and the crazy thing doesn't know it can't do 80-column text that way.
I hope no one tells it that for a while. At least 'til I can hook up the
video.

amiga/tech.talk #114, from jdow:
a comment to 111

Amiga — > KV1311CR interconnections here by pin numbers:

3

-RED -

->

25

4

-GREEN-

->

26

5

-BLUE -

->

27

10

-CSYNC-

->

30

16

-GND -

->

8

17

-GND -

->

9

18

-GND -

->

10

19
23

-GND -

-X

->
->

11

29 fast-blanking input

->

33 RGB/NORMAL mode select

I was setting up to use a 75-ohm resistor to join Amiga 23 to Sony
29/33. This proved unnecessary and I have left pins 29 and 33 inter-
connected as the thing seems to work fantastically well. Very easy to
read 80-column mode.

(PS.: Amiga Gurus, How do I get all 80 columns? All I seem to get
running under Workbench is about 76 columns.) The demos are fan-
tastic. Colors are sharp and clear. And the Mandril is hard to believe.

amiga/tech.talk #133, from jdow:
a comment to 130

Pin 1 on the Sony is lowermost leftmost when facing it. I bet that's what
is left for you to fix. The results are well worth the effort. (If you shine a
flashlight on the pins you will discover that pins 34 and 1 are identified
to aid your insertion efforts.)

Guru Meditation Numbers Explained

amiga/softw.devlpmt #294

An Amiga user asks:

Speaking of Guru Errors, has anybody figured out what the heck the
numbers are supposed to indicate?

amiga/softw.devlpmt #296, from sturner [Scott Turner, L5 Computing]:
a comment to 294

What they are is this: The first number is the 68000 exception number
that caused the guru alert. The second number, after the period, is the
task "handle" of the process that screwed up. All in all not very useful
info. I would have rather h£d the address from the exception frame
myself, but I don't think those guru alerts were meant to be used
without ROMWack.

amiga/tech.talk #122, from jdow:
a comment to 118

Clever trick: Run up Boing! without clicking the Workbench to reveal
Boing! Then click off the animations window and click on the graphics
window. Run up molly and then fields.

Grab the top of the screen and pull down fields to very near the
screen bottom. Grab the top of molly the same way and pull it down.
Click off the graphics window and pull down the Workbench to reveal
the ball.

Finally click to start the ball rotating and bouncing. Now you get to
see it real slowly. Note that the sound still works, and you have
perhaps 10K of memory left. Back out carefully and nothing will break.
It is intriguing to see rnolly, fields, and the top of the bouncing ball all

[continued)

368 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

RUSH POSTAGE-PAID CARD
FOR YOUR FREE CATALOG

• COMPUTER ELECTRONICS training prepares you to service
and repair all computers as you build your own 16-bit IBM
PC compatible computer. Total system program includes disk
drive, test equipment, bundled software, and NRI Discovery
Lab.

• TV/VIDEO/AUDIO SERVICING includes training with 27"
color TV with built-in stereo decoder, VCR, and actual
instruction on videotape.

• SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS training gives you the
skills to service both commercial and consumer satellite
earth station equipment as you assemble your own home
satellite TV system.

• ROBOTICS training features remote-controlled mobile pro-
grammable robot you build, experiment with, and keep along
with other test equipment.

• INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS training prepares you to
service and maintain computer-controlled industrial systems.
Training includes color computer, disk drive, exclusive NRI
training software, and NRI Discovery Lab.

CHECK
[Zf OWE

Name

(Please Print)

Age

Street

City

State

Zip

□ Computer Electronics

D TV/Video/Audio Servicing

□ Satellite Communications
D Robotics

CH Data Communications

n Industrial Electronics

D Communications
Electronics

D Electronic Design
Technology

D Telephone Servicing

□ Digital Electronics
D Basic Electronics

D Bookkeeping & Accounting

□ Appliance Servicing

D Small Engine Servicing

D Air Conditioning, Heating,
Refrigeration, & Solar
Technology

D Locksmithing & Electronic
Security

D Building Construction &
Remodeling

D Automotive Servicing

Accredited by the National Home Study Council

170-026

For career courses app oved
under G.I. Bill Q Check for details.

BUSINESS REPLY MAIL

FIRST CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO. 10008 WASHINGTON, D.C.

POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE

NRI Schools

McGraw Hill Continuing

Education Center
3939 Wisconsin Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20016-9973

NO POSTAGE

NECESSARY

IF MAILED

IN THE

UNITED STATES

I. .I. III. ..II II. II. .I, I. .I. I. .I. ..I. .Mm. II. I

Train for the Fastest Growing Job Skill in America

Only NRI teaches you to service and
repair all computers as you build
your own 16-bit IBM-compatible
micro

As computers move into
offices and homes by the millions,
the demand for trained computer
service technicians surges forward.
The Department of Labor estimates
that computer service jobs will actually
double in the next ten years— a faster
growth than any other occupation.

Total System Training

As an NRI student, you'll get total
hands-on training as you actually build your
own Sanyo MBC-550 series computer from
the keyboard up. Only a person who knows
all the underlying fundamentals can cope
with all the significant brands of computers.
And as an NRI graduate, you'll possess the
up-to-the-minute combination of theory and
practical experience that will lead you to
success on the job.

You learn at your own convenience, in
your own home, at your own comfortable
pace. Without classroom pressures, without
rigid night-school schedules,
without wasted time. Your own
personal NRI instructor and NRI's
complete technical staff will
answer your questions, give you
guidance and special help
whenever you may need it.

The Exciting Sanyo
16-bit IBM-compatible
Computer— Yours To Keep

Critics hail the new Sanyo as
the "most intriguing" of all the
IBM-PC compatible computers. It uses the
same 8088 microprocessor as the IBM-PC
and the MS/DOS operating system. So, you'll
be able to choose thousands of off-the-shelf
software programs to run on your completed
Sanyo.

As you build the Sanyo from the
keyboard up, you'll perform demonstrations
and experiments that will give you a total
mastery of computer operations and
servicing techniques. You'll do programming
in BASIC language. You'll prepare interfaces
for peripherals such as printers and joysticks.
Using utility programs, you'll check out 8088
functioning. NRI's easy step-by-step
directions will guide you all the way right
into one of today's fastest growing fields as a
computer service technician. And the entire

Your NRI course includes a Sanyo 16-bit
microcomputer with 128K RAM, monitor,
double-density/ double-sided disk drive, and
"Intelligent" Keyboard; The NRI Discovery
Lab®, Teaching Circuit Design and Operations;
a Digital Multimeter; Bundled Spread Sheet
and Word Processing Software Worth over
$1000 at Retail— and More.

system, including all
the bundled software
and extensive data
manuals, is yours to
keep as part of your
training.

100-Page Free
Catalog Tells
More

Send the postage-paid reply card today
for NRI's big 1 00-page color catalog, which
gives you all the facts about NRI training in
Microcomputers, Robotics, Data Com-
munications, TV /Video/ Audio Servicing,
and other growing high-tech career fields.
If the card is missing write to NRI at the
address below.

. . .then install
the computer
power supply,
checking all the
circuits and
connections with
NRI's Digital
Multimeter. From
there you'll move
on to install the
disk drive and
monitor.

McGraw-Hill Continuing Education Center

3939 Wisconsin Avenue, NW fi'idf
Washington, DC 20016 0)1

We'll Give You Tomorrow.

IBM is a Registered Trademark of International
Business Machine Corporation.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 369

Best of BIX • Best of BIX ■•■ Best of BIX •

BIX

• BEST OF BIX •BEST OF BIX • BEST OF Bll

at once. It is a clever demo to show the power of the machine to peo-
ple who've never seen it before.

amiga/softw.devlpmt #157, from gregr [Greg Riker, Electronic Arts]

TITLE: IFF Available

I mentioned that I used IFF files with the SlideShow. Allow me to
elaborate. Electronic Arts has a general interest in promoting standards,
so we knocked heads with some people at Commodore-Amiga and
came up with IFF. IFF is intended to be used 'by any and all interested
developers. It offers a convenient way of allowing programs to ex-
change data with one another. For example, GraphiCraft will be able to
exchange files with DeluxePaint, and other EA products. The design is
extensible in that you may add your own types to the standard. There
are programs available in C (public domain!) that will read and write
graphic images in IFF format.

If you're interested in a copy of the spec, please contact Rob Peck at
Commodore-Amiga. He can supply you with a copy of the spec. If you
have any problems or need more information, please contact Jerry
Morrison at Electronic Arts, (415) 571-7171.

PS.: IFF covers graphics, audio, text, and is expandable!

amiga/tutorial #65, from pariseau

TITLE: Chip memory versus Fast memory

The Exec AllocMemf ) call allows you to specify whether you want Chip
memory, Fast memory, or either. Chip memory is the user RAM inside
your Amiga-up to 512K bytes (there's also the 256K of WCS RAM, the
bootstrap ROMs, and the little tiny ROM in the keyboard, but I digress).
Fast memory is any RAM attached to the expansion bus. Chip memory
is the only memory that can be accessed by the custom chips. Fast
memory cannot be accessed by the custom chips but does have the
advantage of never having any memory contention between custom
chips and 68000 (see my note on Memory Speed in Product.dcsn
topic). Note that the 68000 can get anywhere in the system, as can
any processor on the expansion bus that wishes to act as a bus
master (love that flat address space 1 ).

Most people are careful to allocate their data structures referenced by
the chips in Chip memory when they allocate them dynamically. The
problem is that some folks allocate these structures statically (i.e., they
compile them into their programs) or place them on the stack.

This will not work if your program ends up in the extension (i.e., Fast)
memory. The design goal of the machine is that the DOS and all ap-
plications will make a beeline for Fast memory as soon as they see it's
there. This maximizes system throughput during high-bandwidth
graphics operations.

For instance, your program won't collide with the blitter's accesses to
memory, so the blitter will run at full pipelined memory speed. The way
this is accomplished is that Fast memory is installed in the memory free
list prior to Chip memory, so that AllocMemf ) calls that will take either
type (such as those used during program start-up) will preferentially get
Fast memory.

The problem is that you won't notice this type of bug in your pro-
gram until you get some Fast memory. The most common cause of
problems appears to be Gadget Imagery. Please make sure that you
put your Gadget images in allocated Chip memory and not on the
stack or as part of your program code space. If you have a lot of
Gadget images, you may want to move a whole array's worth into Chip
memory; then you can reuse the orignal space for some other purpose.

amiga/tutorial #66, from cheath:
a comment to 65

I was just about to ask . . . Does that mean Image structures equals
ImageData arrays? I assume also SetPointer sprite images. Is there any

way to get a program to load static data into Chip memory? I.e., a
Hunk type that specifies to "SET THIS HUNK IN CHIPMEM"? Any
other cautions (like file buffers)?

amiga/tutorial #84, from rjm:
a comment to 66

Concerning the horror of Chip memoty where pariseau said that the
"most common cause of problems appears to be Gadget Imagery," this
is because people are using and designing gadgets more than
anything else. However, remember that this problem will involve any
memory accessed by the hardware custom chips. This includes, as
cheath pointed out, SetPointerf) memory for the Intuition pointer, but
also includes all of the VSprites and Bobs, anything with bit-map
planes, disk buffers, and more. Someday we will have the ability to
identify Hunks that should be loaded into specific types of memory.
Maybe. Hopefully, pariseau?

Printers

amiga/main #660, from pariseau

TITLE: Hardware Fix for Okimate 20

The folks at Okidata have told us that they have a hardware fix (a new
ROM) for the Okimate 20 color printer that eliminates the horizontal
white lines that appear when used with the Amiga. If you already have
an Okimate 20, you should call (800) OKI-DATA to arrange to swap
your ROM. The new Okimate 20 Plug 'N Print package for the Amiga,
which starts shipping November 15, includes the corrected ROM— as
well as a cable for easy connection, etc.

amiga/main #644, from greggw [Gregg Williams, Senior Technical
Editor, BYTE]

TITLE: Adding Auto-linefeed to Printer Driver— Help!
I have a printer that doesnl automatically do a linefeed (LF) after a car-
riage return (CR) — i.e., it expects the software to send it CR-LF at the
end of each line. All the Amiga software I've found sends a CR only, so
I can't print anything to my serial printer. Does anybody know of a way
to get the Amiga to generate CRs and LFs together? Is there a way to
patch the printer driver? I'm sure that a number of users have printers
with the same problem. Thanks.

amiga/main #645, from pariseau:
a comment to 644

For simple serial printing with an unsupported printer I usually use the
Preferences selection for the Diablo C-150. Don't forget to set your
printer port selection to Serial. Use "copy yourfile to pit" to make it all
work. Note that prt: goes through the printer device, giving you access
to the conversions built in for the supported printers. The DOS handlers
sen and par: go straight to the Exec device driver with no conversion.
If you are having problems using prt: with a supported printer, please
double-check your Preferences selection. If that doesn't fix it, please let
me know.

amiga/tech.talk #16, from rjm

Here's the list of printer drivers that are supported by the machine:

Alpha P-101
Brother 15XL
CBM MPS1000
Diablo 630
Diablo ADV D25

Diablo C-150
Epson

Epson JX-80
Okimate 20
Qume LP 20

(continued)

370 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Multifunction Card with
Error Correction Cods

"This Card Signifies ECCELL'S

l:ilTI-.ER10l'fl8TI5lliM':fllli' :;

Give Your:

IBM AT m COMPATIBLE

ECCELL: Don't Use Your AT without it.

Because You Never Know When You'll Need Protection.

But ECCELL has more: it is the
only multifunction card for the
IBM AT with Error Correction
Code. It continuously checks
memory and corrects single-bit
errors before they do any harm.
Parity errors don't stop you;
they don't even slow you down.

ECCELL is like having a PARITY
ERROR PROTECTION PLAN.
It protects you by preventing
disaster in the first place. The
beneficiary is anyone who uses
an IBM AT or compatible
equipped with ECCELL. It pays
the best benefit of all — the peace
of mind that comes from parity-
error protection.

IBM AT owners beware — the
AT can hold 25 times more
memory than the PC. That's
25 times more chance for a
parity error. You know what
that means: your work is lost
and your computer freezes
with the message.

PARITY CHECK 2

Orchid's ECCELL is your "in-
surance card" — a multifunc-
tion card that guards against
parity errors. It has serial &
parallel ports, Productivity
Software to make your whole
system run better, and ultra-
simple Switchless Installation.
It holds up to 3 megabytes
of memory, including Lotus
Expanded Memory, to break
the 640K DOS limit (EMS) .

*Orchid's Limited Warranty is included with each ECCELL.

ECCELLis a trademark of Orchid Technology. Otherproducts named in thisdocument are trademarks of their manufacturer.

Inquiry 246

Features:

•Up to 3 Mb of RAM

• DOS, Extended, and EMS
Memory (all three modes
simultaneously)

• Switchless Installation gets you
up and running in minutes

• Error Correction Code (ECC)

• Includes: RAM Disk

Disk Caching
Print Spooling

• Serial/Parallel Ports or 2 Serial
Ports

• Adds EMS to ATs that already
have multifunction cards

v 47790 Westinghouse Dr.
1 V Fremont, CA 94539

7*v

(415) 490-8586
Telex 709289

ORCHID

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 371

Best of BIX •Best of BIX • Best of BIX

EIX

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Bestof Bix

Of course, the list is extendable by anyone who cares to write his or
her own printer driver. There are a few other drivers that are just
around the corner. Watch this conference topic for details.

amiga/tutorial #102, from pariseau

TITLE: Printer Escape Sequences (LONG)
AmigaDOS provides three "handlers" that can be used to do I/O to a
printer. These are "par:," "sen," and "prt:," referring to parallel, serial,
and printer, respectively. If you want to do output to the printer using
the file system routines, you will Open( ) one of these and do Write( )
calls to it. The CLI commands also expect you to use these strings as
file parameters. For instance, you can send a file to the printer handler
with the command "copy myfile to prt:", Similarly, you use these handler
names when trying to write to the printer from languages like ABasiC.
(For compatibility, Microsoft's Amiga BASIC also defines LPT1 to be the
same as prt:.)

An AmigaDOS handler is simply a piece of interface code that
translates the device-independent file system calls like Write( ) into the
appropriate message traffic to the "devices" implemented in Exec, the
multitasking kernel of the Amiga. The par: handler uses the device
"parallel.device," which is the Exec code that manages the parallel port
connector on the back of your Amiga. The ser: handler uses the
device "serial .device," which manages the serial port connector.

Simply put, when you do output to par: or ser: you are talking
straight through to the hardware— with no intervening levels of inter-
pretation. If you have an Okimate 20 printer connected to your parallel
port, then escape sequences sent to par: will reach it directly and will
have whatever effect they are defined to have by Okidata.

Printing to par: or ser: is pretty straightforward. Keep in mind that a
standard AmigaDOS text file uses LF as a line separator (not CR or
CR-LF), and that a file may or may not have an LF at the end. You
may want to add a carriage-return character to the ends of your lines
(in a simple program you create), or, if your printer offers this option,
flip the switch that automatically gives you a CR when the printer
receives an LF.

(Note: Input from par: and ser: is somewhat more complex, since
they do "buffered" I/O— but I digress.) If you are writing a program, you
can avoid all this handler stuff by doing an OpenDevicef ) directly on
the Exec device you are interested in talking to. You then pass I/O re-
quest blocks to the device using the I/O calls provided by Exec
(DolO( ) and friends). The advantage of talking directly to the device is
that you get a lot more flexibility, including things like asynchronous I/O
and the ability to set device parameters such as serial baud rate. For
more information on how you call the system library and device
routines and just what functions are available, please look in the Amiga
"ROM Kernel Manual" (which will be in the stores shortly!).

Note that the Preferences tool printer settings have no effect on the
function of the par: and ser: handlers! (Preferences is, however, used to
set the default baud rate used by ser:.) Any special function you want
your printer to do is up to you when you use par: or ser:. You must
choose the correct escape sequences to send to do even initialization-
style functions— such as setting the margins. Obviously, this obliges you
to know what style printer is connected to your Amiga and whether it is
connected to the serial or to the parallel port.

Which brings us to prt:. The prt: handler uses the Exec device
"printer.device." The printer device uses the information it finds in the
Preferences settings to understand the type of printer you have con-
nected and how you want it to be used. On the basis of the printer
port setting you've made in Preferences, the printer device talks to
either the serial or the parallel device to reach the printer:

The printer device understands only its own, printer-independent,
escape sequences. It converts these escape sequences into the

printer-specific escape sequences appropriate for the printer currently
selected in Preferences. In addition, the Initialize function (which is in-
voked when you open the printer device or when you send it the Ini-
tialize escape sequence) causes the appropriate escapes to be sent to
your printer to configure it according to the options you have selected
in Preferences. This, for instance, is how your margin settings get sent
to the printer.

If you use the printer device (or prt:), you can write code that is
largely independent of the type of printer your customers have on their
Amigas.

Note that when using the printer device (or prt:), you should turn off
any option on your printer providing for an automatic CR, LF, or CR-LF
to be generated whenever the printer receives an LF. The printer
device will provide end-of-line CR-LFs as needed. Also note that, in ad-
dition to the alphanumeric printing described here, the printer device
provides for black-and-white, gray-scale, and full-color, raster-graphics
printing. This function is only available when talking directly to the
printer device (not from prt:).

Known Bugs

The V1.0 Serial Device (and thus, ser:) does not read reliably at the
higher baud rates. Writes work just fine. The serial device uses
Ctrl-S/Ctrl-Q (XON/XOFF) flow control only for V1.0.

The V1.0 Printer Device does not correctly interpret length = -1,
which is supposed to indicate that you've given the printer a null ter-
minated string. Prt: is not affected by this, since the handler code
always feeds the printer device the correct length.

ATARI

Both the Atari and Amiga conferences contain numerous messages
comparing the merits and inherent problems of the two computers, but
there is, as well, considerable interest in making the most of each
machine. This month for the 520ST, we include some technical tips, in-
cluding instructions on upgrading the computer to 1 megabyte of RAM,
mention some minor bugs in GEM/TOS, and cover some of the discus-
sion concerning the compatibility between the color and monochrome
systems.

1-Megabyte Memory Upgrade

Message 53 in Atari/tech explains how to upgrade the Atari 520ST's
512K-byte memory to 1 megabyte. [Editor's note: Before attempting the
upgrade, we recommend that you check BIX for Gert Slavenberg's
latest upgrades and for the comments of those who have attempted the
procedure] Gert Slavenberg explains that TOS automatically recognizes
and uses the added memory. The expansion requires a lot of very
delicate soldering and desoldering and resoldering— and of course
voids the Atari warranty.

Message 54 provides Gert Slavenberg's complete C source code to
create a RAM disk, which requires the 1-megabyte memory expansion.
[Editor's note: You can also download the source code from BYTEnet
Listings (617) ,861-9764 as STRAMDSK.C or obtain it on disk (see page
350).}

atari/tech.st #53, from Gert Slavenberg

Warning: This is a hardware modification that will void the warranty of
your 520ST. If you do not have the appropriate tools or experience, you
have a substantial chance of ruining your 520ST

(continued)

372 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Pushy, pushy, pushy.

Alt

resident;
move from program to program with the push of a key

Now you can go from application to application in a single key-
stroke. With RESIDENT 1 ;* the product that makes different programs memory
resident in your PC. Just name your own key to access your application.

SAVE TIME 26 WAYS. No more waiting to change programs. Go
from Lotus 1-2-3' to Wordstar 1 to DOS and back again. RESIDENT gives you
instant access to as many as 26 programs. And ends stopping, searching and
loading diskettes during the workday

CUT AND PASTE. Take data (CUT) as it appears on the screen from
any application and transfer it (PASTE) to any other application. For example,
move columns from your spreadsheet to your word processor.

SOMETHING EXTRA. DESKTOP PROGRAMS. Desktop pro-
grams are simply another application for RESIDENT'. Included free is Utility
Package I, which has these programs: NOTE PAD, PHONE DIALER,
CARD FILE, BASE CONV, CALCULATOR, ASCII TABLE, COMM.
TERM., AND MESSAGE PAD.

AT A PRICE THAT'S NOT PUSHY $89.95.
RESIDENT does a lot. But it doesn't cost a lot.

And ordering it is almost as easy as
using it. Just push a few buttons.

INFORMATION SOFTWARE, INC

2639 Walnut Hill #135

Dallas, Texas 75229

For more information, call

(214)353-2966

♦Requirements IBM" (PC. XT. AT),and 100% compatibles.
PC DOS 2.0 cr higher, one DSDD 5* ' disk drive
Technical Not copy protected RESIDENT ie^u:res cr.Iy \2V
overhead pe: memory resident application

Inquiry 163

Send this coupon with your credit card
number (VISA, MASTERCARD), money order or check
for $89.95 plus $5.00 for postage and handling.
In Texas, add 6Vb /o sales tax ($5.51). Outside the
U.S. add$10.00(toU.S. Bank)for postage and han-
dling. No COD. please.

CHECK

CARD #:
NAMF

-MONEY ORDER VISA MC

FXP nATF

COMPANY

L aPPBPSR

CITY

ATE

ZIP

PHDNF MD

RESIDENT is a trademark of Information Soil-
ware, Inc IBM PC. XT, AT are registered
traoemarks of International Business
:, MachinesCoiporation.
«| LOTUS 1-2-3 is a regisiered trademar*
■?•• of Lotus Development Corp
^k Wordstar ts a registered trademark
^^ ol MicroPro InternationalCorp

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX •

EIX

BEST OF BIX • BEST OF BIX •BEST OF BIX

Proceed at your own risk! I have not checked with knowledgeable
sources at Atari to verify if this modification endangers the long-term
machine reliability and/or software compatibility (I suspect it may en-
danger their software compatibility ... if enough of us do it!).

Tools and components needed:

Sixteen 256K by 1 RAM chips, 150-ns access time type, e.g., NEC
41256C-15.

A good-quality, preferably temperature-controlled, soldering iron, with
a miniature tip (tip should be narrow enough to avoid touching two IC
pins at the same time), e.g., Weller-type soldering station.

Good-quality resin core solder (thin).

Approximately 4 feet of wire-wrap wire and a good stripper for it.
(You will have to route three wires over a sequence of IC pins. The
easiest way to do this is to have a stripper allowing you to shift the in-
sulation forward over the wire, solder the next point, measure new
length, shift over insulation, etc., until the endpoint). The "No Nik" 0.014
(dark-green handle) wire-wrap stripper is the best tool for this.

Desoldering wick and solder suction tool.

Phillips-type screwdriver (for opening your ST), tweezers, pliers, etc.

A steady hand and self-confidence.

Explanation of the modification:

(Please read the rest of this document before starting. It may save
you time and a 520ST) The current memory inside the 520ST consists
of sixteen 256K by 1 RAM chips. Address (A0..A8) lines are common to
all those chips.

The WriteEnable line is also common to all chips. Data (in and out)
lines are, of course, individual. The RAS (row-address strobe) line is
common to all chips. The eight chips forming the high-order byte
group have one common CAS line, and the eight forming the low-order
byte group have one common CAS line (CAS is used as enable for
write operations, such that WriteEnable can be common to both
groups).

The high-order group from MSB to LSB consists of U45, 44, 43, 42,
38, 34, 33, and 32. The low-order group is U30, 29, 28, 25, 24, 18, 17,
and 16. Note that all chips are adjacent, though the numbering has
gaps. RASO, CASOH, and CASOL are supplied from U1 pins 8, 6, and
7, respectively. (The indicates bank 0.)

Bank 1 that you are going to build in will be "piggybacked" on top
of the current chips, where all pins of the new chips except RAS (pin 4)
and CAS (pin 15) are soldered to the old chips' equivalent pins. Thus,
they will end up sharing addresses, data, WriteEnable, and power and
ground with the existing chips.

All RAS pins of the new chips are wired together and will be sup-
plied with the RAS1 signal generated on pin 18 of U15 (the memory
controller, marked 3H-119C or so). The CAS pins of the eight new high-
order byte chips (on top of U45..U32) are wired together and supplied
from the CAS1H signal generated on pin 22 of U15. Analogously, the
CAS pins of the new U30 to U16 are wired together and supplied with
CASH from pin 21 of U15.

How to go about it:

Step 1: Open up your 520ST, pull off the keyboard connector, and
remove the main circuit card from its top and bottom shielding. Make
sure to remember which screws go where, and note the keyboard con-
nector orientation.

Step 2: Desolder all of the capacitors adjacent to the existing RAM
chips. [Do not skip this step. You'll lose time if you do, and worse, the
modification will not be reliable since you can't solder pins obstructed
by the capacitors reliably [if at all]).

To desolder them, I found it easiest to heat the island on the non-
component side and bend the wires straight. After doing that on each

capacitor, turn over to the component side and heat the islands while
pulling the capacitor out with the tweezers.

Step 3: Open up the holes of all the desoldered capacitors, using a
combination of desoldering wick and suction tool. Do this from the
noncomponent side. If certain holes are difficult to open up, you may
want to use a wood splinter (push it through while heating). Be careful
to remove all solder debris!

The reason for opening the holes now is that they will be less ac-
cessible once you've done the other steps! Patience is a virtue.

(Note: Steps 2 and 3 are the only ones that may damage your ST
PC board. Be sure not to use excessive force while pulling out the
capacitors. If you damage your PC board anyway, cure the problem
now and not later.)

Step 4: In this step we will piggyback the new RAMs on top of the
old ones. Be sure to connect all pins except pins 4 (RAS) and 15 ■
(CAS). The best way to go about this is to do it chip by chip.

First, bend the pins of the new RAMs such that they are perpen-
dicular to the package (instead of having slightly spread "cowboy
legs"). Use pliers to bend pins 4 and 15 such that they come out of the
IC package horizontally, and cut off the excess length of pins 4 and 15
(I mean part of the pin, you still need to be able to solder to it!). Make
sure that the new RAM fits snugly on top of the old one (in the same
orientation!), without intervening space and with the new pins touching
the old ones.

Now solder each pin (except the nontouching 4 and 15) to the other
RAM's. The best way to do this with the least chance of damage is to
touch both the new RAM's pin and the old RAM's pin. Heat them both
for a second and add a little solder then. Wait till the solder flows. After
each IC, check all pins carefully to assure a good connection (use a
magnifying glass).

Note: This step is crucial for the long-term reliability of the memory
extension. A badly soldered joint may show up later as sporadic
memory errors. Take your time.

(Note: Until step 6 is finished, do not in any way apply power to your
ST. This intermediate state of affairs will damage your memory chips.)

Step 5: Remount all the desoldered capacitors. Bend the pins like
they were before resoldering, so that they will not touch the lower
shielding. Solder from the noncomponent side.

Step 6: In this step you will route the three wires mentioned earlier.
The first wire connects pin 4 (RAS) of all the new RAMs to pin 18 of
U15. The second wire connects pin 15 (CAS) of the new U45 to U32 to
pin 22 (CAS1H) of U15. The third wire connects pin 15 (CAS) of the new
U30 to U16 to pin 21 of U15.

The best way to do this is to use the stripper to remove 5 inches of
insulation. Solder the first C pin to the end of the blank wire, measure
the distance to the next pin in sequence, and shift over that amount of
insulation. Continue in this fashion until all the pins in sequence are
done. Work from U45 to the left, soldering directly to the leftover pins
on the new chips.

Make sure that no wire or solder sticks out above the the top plane
of the new chips, since they will almost touch the top shielding! Route
the wires through the PC board hole below and to the left of U15 to
connect to U15 on the noncomponent side.

Step 7: Sit back. Use Brain. Do you feel confident about the quality
of your work? No mistakes? Check everything once again if you are but
a little uncertain. Applying power with errors might make your ST into a
decorative, nonfunctional piece of art. OK. Either rebuild your ST into its
shielding and cabinet, or put it onto a surface clear of wires and solder
remains and connect it to monitor, disk, and supply.

Boot it. If it boots, you're probably there. Test if the new memory
works by looking at the phystop variable ($42E) with SID if you have
the developer stuff. It should read $100000. Also note that memcntlr

[continued)

374 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Even the smallest bug is big game.

There are no insignificant bugs.
They're often ferocious. . .
and elusive!

That's why we built the
better "bug hunter." The UDL
(Universal Development Lab-
oratory). It's actually an:

• Advanced 48- channel bus
state analyzer

• 8/16 bit in-circuit emulator

• EPROM programmer

• Input stimulus generator
All packed into one, compact
box for only $2995.

UDL turns almost any
PC/MS-DOS and CP/NT com-
puter into a powerful, integrated
workstation for hardware/soft-
ware debugging. UDl!s unique,

CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research.
Inquiry 24 7

real-time emulation lets you
track bugs of 46 different target
microprocessor "species"
without buying expensive
hardware adapters.

Access all four instru-
ments through the same control
program. Handle single- step
debugging with the emulator.
And quickly define a complex
trigger spec, so the built-in
logic analyzer can find those
nasty subtle bugs.

When your tested pro-
gram is bug-free, plug a PROM
into the socket. And with one
command, simply write your
program from emulation mem-
ory directly into the PROM.

Let our UDL simplify
the hunt, and keep you quick
on the trigger. If you're serious
about bug hunting, find out
how to qualify for a no- obliga-
tion, 10-day "safari" with UDL.
Call: 800/245-8500 (or 415/
361-8883 in California). Or write:
702 Marshall Street, 6th Floor,
Redwood City, CA 94063.

Instruments

Become a Professional Bug Hunter.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 375

Best of bix • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

BIX

Best of BIX • Best of bix ♦ best of bix

($424) now holds 5 instead of 4, and that v_bas_ad ($44E) now
holds $F80000 (screen bit-map origin).

If you don't have the developer stuff, try a single-drive copy and
check that you get the whole disk in one buffer instead of two. If the
new memory does not seem to exist, use SID to deposit and retrieve
words on locations $80000 and up ( 1 /2 megabyte hexadecimal). If bit
errors occur, the ST boot ROM did not detect the extension (it checks
all bits of 512 locations by testing a pseudorandom sequence, before
accepting a memory bank). Try to pinpoint the faulty chip(s) and
remove the error.

If it doesn't boot, you're in trouble. I'm sorry. It is difficult to give hints
on what to do here. So many possibilities. Desoldering the new chips
probably won't work (if the old ones were functional, the ST would still
boot). Check for hidden short circuit on the RAM pins. May also be
that you have a flaky new pin connection.

RAM Disk for the 1-Megabyte ST

atari/tech.st #54, from Gert Slavenberg

To stimulate you to do my 1-megabyte modification, I am distributing a
primitive RAM-disk program that will alleviate your needs for a second
floppy. The program is currently only runnable on the 1-megabyte ST. It
is installed as a desk accessory (load it in at boot time; it stays resi-
dent), takes over the BIOS disk I/O vectors, and implements the device
driver for drive D. The RAM disk is identical to a single-sided standard
520ST floppy. It is extremely fast; when you put the header files and C
source on the RAM disk, compilation takes only the compiler/assembler
code load time (+ 30 seconds). Loading MicroEmacs is almost
instantaneous.

Though I feel a little ashamed at distributing this slightly primitive ver-
sion, it runs reliably and speeds up my own program debug cycle by a
factor of 10 or more. If anyone comes up with a more useful program
(e.g., using the terminate and stay resident .call instead of wasting a
desk accessory, and/or creating an arbitrary size RAM disk with valid
file structure), please distribute that in public domain, too.

amiga/main #577, from jsan [Jez San, Argonaut Software]

I have already had my ST upgraded to 1 megabyte of RAM. The
upgrade is absolutely vital for serious development use (at least while
GEM is still in RAM) because the need to use RAM disks or edit large
files requires more than the 200K bytes of memory that remain after
you boot.

I might add that although the 1-megabyte upgrade involves con-
siderable soldering, the actual parts cost only about $50.

Still, the ST is still very much a closed-architecture machine. Just
because you can add RAM by opening the case and piggybacking
chips doesn't make it an open-architecture machine. There is no in-
herent way of "memory mapping" an external piece of hardware easily
to the ST You either have to have an 8-bit parallel DMA device (up to
1.33 megabytes/second), or you can memory-map up to 128K onto the
cartridge port, with no read/write line. It's a no-win situation! No
peripherals can be attached to the ST without their having on-board in-
telligence to cope with the STs limitations. As Sig Hartmann says: Our
machine doesn't need to be open architecture because we've supplied
everything as standard. I don't agree that he is right, but commercially,
he has a point. It's a very simple but effective product.

Bugs and Tips

atari/tech.st #110, from satether [Steve Tether]

TITLE: Minor Bugs in GEM/TOS

I have had my 520ST for about three months now. Ever since I re-
seated the chips on the motherboard the system has been very
reliable. There are a few things, however, that annoy me.

1. Whenever I do a Print Screen, either from the menu or with Alt-Help,
the time of day in the system clock gets trashed. I'd like to be able to
keep the machine turned on all the time so that programs can find out
the time and date (e.g., for use in a tickler-file application).

2. If a printer is not connected when I do Print Screen, the system
hangs and I must reboot.

3. If I try to delete a file that is read-only, I get a dialog box that "TOS
error 1" has occurred. Not very informative.

4. If I create a folder whose name consists of exactly eight characters
without an extension, the system refuses to let me put anything into it. It
claims that the folder can't be found.

atari/tech.st #111, from jsan:
a comment to 110

All the bugs you mention are common to all normal TOS owners. They
have all been corrected in later versions but have not been released
yet. The next TOS will probably be in ROM, in at least a month's time,
since even if they were to finish it this week, it still takes one month to
commit it to masked ROM.

atari/tech.st #116, from neilharris [Neil Harris, Atari Corp.]:
Nov. 13, 1985: a comment to 110

Steve, we are working on a final release of TOS for the ROMs, which
should be finished soon. I believe that we will release that version on
disk as well. Aside from being somewhat shorter in length (it has to fit
into 192K of ROM in the memory map), it clears up all the problems
you reported and a couple of others, particularly the heap manage-
ment problem that results in your not being able to open windows after
leaving the system on for too long and using that feature a lot.

atari/tech.st #108, from cheath [Charlie Heath, Microsmiths]

To use multiple dialog boxes on screen simultaneously, the form_do
command cannot be used, since it puts program in wait loop for a
specific dialog box. Instead, use objc find commands, but it is impor-
tant to note that the application must acquire control over the mouse
while waiting for user response; otherwise the system will hang up if
the curser is moved into any "sensitive area" (such as window border,
menu area, etc.).

Control over the mouse is acquired by using the window update
command with proper parameters.

New Software

atari/tech.st #73

One user tried Hippo-C but found it lacking. The primary problem was
the almost complete lack of documentation. Hippo claims full support
for the K&R C (except floating point), but several library calls are not
there.

For example, how do you allocate dynamic memory? Also, you really
need some documentation on GEM, VDI, and AES calls; the manual
only gives the routine names, no descriptions even. Second big gripe
is that it does not use the GEM interface in any way. The text editor
does not even use the mouse.

atari/news.st #89, from bwebster [Bruce Webster, Consulting Editor,
BYTE]

I received today the TDI Modula-2/ST package from TDI Software Ltd.
in England. After having played with it this evening, I am ready to drop
C like a hot rock (not that I'm terribly fond of C in the first place). The
compile and link phases are easier and faster than for the C compiler
(DRI/Lattice), the editor (included in the package) is the closest thing to

[continued)

376 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

TEK

2213A/2215A/2235

DUAL TRACE OSCILLOSCOPES

THE ANSWER

BY ANY MEASURE

Now! Tek quality and expert
are just a free phone call away!

The industry
standard in CRT
performance.

Crisp, easy-to-
read, bright CRT;
14kV accelerating
potential, provides
high writing rate
and small spot
size. Full size 8x10
cm display for
measurement
accuracy.

Display controls
are flexible and
easy to use. Sep-
arate intensity
controls reduce
blooming in alter-
nate sweep mode.
Focus tracking
minimizes control
adjustment and
BEAM FIND elimi-
nates confusion.

Vertical sys-
tem provides
measurement
assurance. Flat
transient response
and high accuracy
ensures true
reproduction of
your signals. Fast
risetime and high
bandwidth is well
suited for a variety
of measurement.

Perform delayed
sweep measure-
ments accurately
and easily. Both
sweeps can be
displayed alter-
nately making dif-
ferential measure-
ments easy and
accurate (1%).
An interlocking
SEC/DIV control
simplifies set-up.

Stable hands-off
triggering. P-P

AUTO detects sig-
nal peaks, then
sets the trigger
level for you. Dis-
play asynchronous
signals using
VERT MODE trig-
gering. Indepen-
dent TV field and
line selection.

Front panel laid
out by function
for ease of use.

Color coding aids
the user in opera-
tion. Functions
and modes are
placed logically.
All nomenclature
is clearly labeled,
and protected
behind a scratch-
less Lexan surface.

Our direct order line gets
you the industry's leading
price/performance portables . . .
and fast answers from experts!

The 60 MHz single time base delay
221 3A, the 60 MHz dual time base
221 5A and the 1 00 MHz dual time
base 2235 offer unprecedented
reliability and affordability, plus the
industry's first 3-year warranty*
on labor and parts, CRT included.

The cost: just $1275 for the
2213A, $1525 for the 2215A,
$1750 for the 2235.t Even at
these low prices, there's no
scrimping on performance. You

have the bandwidth for digital
and analog circuits. The sensitivity
for low signal measurements. The
sweep speeds for fast logic fami-
lies. And delayed sweep for fast,
accurate timing measurements.
All scopes are UL Listed and CSA
approved.

You can order, or obtain
literature, through the Tek
National Marketing Center. Tech
nical personnel, expert in scope
applications, will answer your
questions and expedite delivery.
Direct orders include comprehen-
sive 3-year warranty*, operator's

manual, two 1 0X probes, 15-day
return policy and worldwide ser-
vice backup.

Order toll free:
1-800-426-2200,
Ask for Rick.

In Oregon, call collect:
(503) 627-9000.
Or write Tektronix, Inc.
P.O. Box 1700
Beaverton, OR 97075

Ttektronix

COMMITTEOTO EXCELLENCE

Copyright® 1985, Tektronix, Inc. All rights reserved. #TTA-439-3. fPrice F.O.B. Beaverton, OR. '3-year warranty includes CRT.
Inquiry 331

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 377

best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX *

EIX

• BEST OF BIX •BEST OF BIX • BEST OF BIX

a Mac-style editor I've seen on the ST (and can be fully driven from the
keyboard, for you mousophobes), and it has complete libraries for
GEMDOS, AES, and VDI.

I was dreading having to wade through GEM, but now I'm actually
looking forward to writing some programs on the ST. The package
costs 195 pounds. TDI's U.S. office (they recently merged with Pinnacle)
is in Dallas, TX, (214) 340-4941. It produces stand-alone 68000 native-
code programs, and it's fast. I'll try to get some benchmarks up here
sometime soon, but the graphics demos (which are all working through
GEM calls) really zip along, especially the rotating cube (wire-frame,
almost flicker-free) and the bouncing lines.

Color versus Monochrome

amiga/main #623, from bwebster

As far as I know, color software (Neochrome, for example) will not run
on the monochrome monitor. If any of you out there know differently,
please let me know.

amiga/main #624, from cheath

Programmers must make it work, if they want to. Most of the color soft-
ware will work in mono, at Vi screen width . . . Mono-only software, I
don't know what happens in color.

atari/tech.st #109, from cheath

It is possible to detect which type of monitor is present and to write
conditional code to work for both in the same program, but the calls
are different. It is possible to design a single dialog box that may be
used by both mono and color; however, in the 320 by 200 mode the
dialog box is twice as large on screen as on the monochrome screen.
We have had trouble reading the vertical-sync register; the system
crashes when we try it.

atari/tech.st #112, from neilharris

Bruce, Neochrome was written to work only in color— it is a color draw-
ing program by design. Other programs like Doodle (a freebie) and
Degas from Batteries Included, plus the upcoming GEM Paint and
GEM Draw, all work fine in color or in monochrome. It is up to the
software.

Double-Sided Drives

atari/non.tech.st #81, from bwebster

I was able to trade in one of my single-sided drives for a double-sided
drive (which, by the way, only holds 709K, not 750+ as someone else
reported), I seem to have a little problem, though: Now that I have one
SS drive and one DS drive, how do I copy disks?

atari/non.tech.st #84, from jsan:
a comment to 83

Let's assume that you want to copy files from Disk A, which is SS, onto
Disk B, which is DS.

First, open up the Destination Drive, which is Disk B. With its window
sitting open in front of you, drag Disk As icon (Source Disk) and let go
of it while it is over the top of the open window of B (Destination).
Once that's done, the files will be copied, one by one. If there's not
enough room, or if there are duplicate files, then no matter . . . you'll
be kept informed of all things nasty!

atari/non.tech.st #85, from bwebster:
a comment to 84

Ah! You misunderstood my question. I want to make a copy of a given

DS disk, i.e., transfer all files onto another DS disk. I know quite well
how to copy files from a DS disk to a SS disk and back; the first thing I
did after formatting a DS disk was to copy all the files from my two
Modula-2 disks (compiler and linker) onto it.

It took forever, too: The ST is not terribly fast when it comes to file-by-
file transfers, I'm not sure the ST will let me do what I want to do
without unplugging one of the two drives (depending upon which for-
mat disk I want to copy).

atari/non.tech.st #86, from jsan:
a comment to 85

Yes, I should think unplugging one of the drives is the quickest way to
do it— I can't think of another way offhand!

IBM

This roundup of the activity in the IBM conference features a summary
by John Fistere, the conference moderator, of hints for IBM users.
Discussions this month include the installation and use of the NEC V20
processor, speeding up the IBM PC AT, and customizing your DOS
prompt.

Hints

ibm.pc/pc.hints #2, from johnf [John Fistere]

A summary of IBM hints from wheelock (Bruce Wheelock) and rmalloy
(Rich Malloy, BYTE).

wheelock:

Running programs from a hard disk: In order to avoid the tedious
changing directories to get to any program you may have on your disk,
write a small .BAT file to do the work for you. Each program you run
should have its own .BAT file, and to further keep things organized,
these .BAT files and only these files should be in a separate directory
named something like \ start. (Your autoexec.bat file should have a
path statement in it that includes this directory.)

In regard to those batch files, if you put ECHO OFF as the first line
in your batch file, you won't have to watch all the commands go by.
There is no need, by the way, to put ECHO ON at the end of a batch
file. It happens anyway.

My WordStar and Microsoft Word batch files are both set up to do all
directory handling, call WordStar/Word, and erase all the .BAK files, if
any exist. This is done by:

IF NOT EXIST
ERASE *.BAK
:NONE

.BAK GOTO NONE

The :NONE, of course, is a .BAT file label. This method keeps me from
cluttering up my hard drive with .BAK files, and I don't even have to
think about it.

rmalloy offers the following procedures to use SideKick to compose
and to receive messages:

I composed this message using Notepad in SideKick. To transfer the
message to BIX, do the following:

Enter SideKick (Ctrl-Alt)
Write message

Mark the block you want to transfer by using the Ctrl-K-B and
Ctrl-K-K combinations

{continued)

378 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

Get up to speed

for under
a hundred bucks*

If you're writing in the BASIC that
came with your IBM® PC, now you
can make your programs scream.
Microsoft's new QuickBASIC Com-
piler will punch you right into warp
speed, accelerating your programs by
as much as ten times. And all with
hardly any code changes.

You get all this at a price that won't
slow you down, either. Just $99 and
you're in.

The new QuickBASIC Compiler
was designed to work with the

GRAPHICS

Music Inc.
Sales '85
Sales '84
— Expenses

MUSIC

STRUCTURE

GOSUB init
DRAW -U5R5"

WILE i<Max
PLAV "ARC"
i = i + I

WEND

Init:

CLS

nax s 9999
RETURN

programs you've already written. It
supports all BASIC sound and graphic
statements including PLA^ SOUND,
LOCATE, DRAW GET, PUT, LINE,

CIRCLE, PSET, and COLOR.

So your graphics and music routines
will look and sound as they should.

And when you're ready to move
into structured programming, Quick-
BASIC also offers language extensions
for a speedy transition. With optional
alphanumeric labels you can make
your programs more readable. And
compiled subprograms will save
you time.

So get moving MICROSOFT.

Uall US nOW tOr The High Performance Software"

more information on the QuickBASIC
Compiler and the name of your
nearest Microsoft dealer. Just ring
(800) 426-9400. In Washington State,
Alaska, Hawaii and Canada, call
(206) 828-8088.

Then go give your programs a
swift kick.

Microsoft is a registered trademark and The High Performance Software is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.

Best of BIX •Best of BIX • Best of BIX »

EIX

• Best of BIX * Best of BIX • Best of BIX

Press Ctrl-K-E to indicate an external paste

Designate a key to signal when the paste operation should begin

(eg.. Alt-P)
Press B to indicate that the paste should be done in Block mode

(all at once)
Press Esc to return to BIX
Get ready to type a comment
And press your designated paste key (e.g., Alt-P)

One minor problem is that the screen looks like a mess while
SideKick is doing its external paste. But BIX seems to do a good job of
catching every character that gets pasted.

Also, SideKick has a pretty nifty way of importing data. The
procedure:

When there is something on the screen you want to capture, enter

SideKick's Notepad (Ctrl-Alt, F2)
Press F4 (this brings you back to the original screen)
Move the cursor to the upper left corner of desired block
Press Ctrl-K-B; repeat with Ctrl-K-K at lower right corner (this brings you

back to SideKick)
Move cursor to desired position in SideKick
Press Ctrl-K-C, and voila!

There is the probability that you will be logged off while you are con-
nected and editing a message in SideKick. Richard Shuford suggests
typing either "say," "com," or "rep" to the Read: prompt before going
into SideKick.

You can also import text to SideKick from the verbose editor without
importing the verbose editor prompt.

The blocks you import from the screen are rectangular, so you need
but start your block in the first column of actual text. This will bypass
whatever prompt is being used in the verbose editor. For example:

1 Do a Ctrl-K-B here

input->This is the first line

input-> However, this line is much longer, as you can see.

input-> While the final line only goes to here.

Do a Ctrl-K-K here I

Then, when you import, you will get:

This is the first line

However, this line is much longer, as you can see.

While the final line only goes to here.

The NEC V20 Processor

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #34, from mhaas [Mark Haas, Contributing
Editor, BYTEJ

I just read that putting a NEC V20 processor into your IBM PC will in-
crease performance noticeably. Just pop out the ol' 8088 and slip one
of these $20 wonders in and away you go. Anyone have any info on
this or tried it?

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #37, from cjackson [Craig Jackson]:
a comment to 34

There was a presentation about it several months ago at a Boston
Computer Society IBM PC Tech subgroup meeting. The basic answer
is it's about 5 percent faster on a general mix. If you have lots of com-
plicated instructions, especially multiplies, it will speed up even more.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #41 from naro [Richard Naro, Manager of the V-
Series Microprocessors for NEC Electronics Inc.]

V20 instruction performance improvements: The multiply/divide instruc-
tions are better than three times faster than the similar instructions on

the 8088. String instructions are also slightly more than twice as fast.
Obviously, applications using a greater percentage of these instructions
will show better improvements. Other instructions such as branching,
effective address calculation, and multiple bit shifts have minor perfor-
mance improvements.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #42:
a comment to 41

A BIX user commented that a friend found good improvement (25 per-
cent) in his Mandelbrot-set program with the V20, as it was using
emulated floating-point, which was helped a lot by the faster multiplies.
The 8087 version of that program is still faster, so the 8087 is what hed
recommend if you really want to crunch numbers. He heard that the
V20 is not compatible with an 8087. Anybody know for sure?

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #43, from naro:
a comment to 42

I know for a fact that the V20 is compatible with the 8087 unless the
application code assumed some standard execution time and
neglected to use WAIT instructions to keep the two parts in sync. Of
course this type software would fail to run on any faster machine, so it
is rare and not recommended. Speaking of 8087s, did you know NEC
will introduce a CMOS Floating Point Processor that is pin- and
software-compatible with the 8087? It will be faster with more instruc-
tions with availability some time in the first half of next year.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #63:
a comment to 34

Another BIX user comments: I have used the V20 on three clones-
Corona. Compaq, and Advanced Computer Solutions (also sold as
Turbo PC because it supports 8-MHz modes)— with complete com-
patibility and 8087 support. It speeds things up variably as some of the
other messages have said, but I usually find that, subjectively, things
are much better than the 5-30 percent usual benchmarks. Text and
display-oriented routines are most improved.

I had a problem installing it in an IBM PC with the original IBM disk
drives. It would boot from the hard disk okay, but access to the flop-
pies resulted in a hang-up. Seems the IBM BIOS ROM uses an idiotic
timing loop based on specific instruction timing.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #80

Another BIX user said that he had a new V20 in a Seequa Chameleon.
It works quite well and is, of course, noticeably faster. It's really easy to
install.

ibm.pc/pchardware #152, from sanyohacker [Bob Babcock]

Do all V20 chips run at 8 MHz, or are there different versions for higher
clock rates?

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #165, from naro:
a comment to 152

They are available in both 5- and 8-MHz versions with 10 MHz to be
introduced in the very near future.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #166, from dr_dan [Dan Lewis]

I have a NEC V20 chip in my Sanyo MBC-555. In general, I've been
delighted with the results, except for two things: (1) The orignal Sanyo-
supplied floppy-disk FORMAT program no longer works. Presumably,

[continued)

380 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

Princeton

Graphic Systems

Number One

Again

Sharp resolution, full compatiblity, and rug-
ged reliability. That's what you get in every
Princeton Graphic Systems monitor. That's
why Princeton Graphic Systems is number
one in the minds of more and more personal
computer owners every year.

Only Princeton Graphic Systems offers a
complete family of quality personal computer

displays. Our color and monochrome
monitors outperform the competition every
time. That's why, for the second year in a
row, our HX-12 high resolution color monitor
has been voted best in the world.*

So for the very best in personal computer
monitors, pick the company that's number
one. Princeton Graphic Systems.

'PC WORLD Magazine's 1985 World Class Survey.

PRINCETON'

GRAPHIC SYSTEMS

AN INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS COMPANY

601 Ewing Street. Bldg. A, Princeton, NJ 08540, (609) 683-1660, Telex: 821402 PGSPRIN, (800) 221-1490 Ext. 704

Inquiry 263

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 381

Best of BIX •'. Best of BIX • Best of BIX •

EIX

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

there is some weird time-dependent loop that it depends on, but I dont
understand why running FORMAT with the V20 causes the divide
overflow to appear on the screen just before returning to the operating
system. [Editor's note: dr_dan says the FORMAT program uses a
timing loop] (2) My CP/M-86 implementation (KSP Windows for
CP/M-86) no longer boots. This one I have no clues on! I know of no
reason in my code that it should work on a standard 8088 but not with
the V20. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them 1 . Or if anyone
has experienced the same problem with V20s and the Sanyo MS-DOS
FORMAT program, please let me know! In general, the 8088 emulation
in the V20 is a bit more imperfect than simply a timing difference!

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #170, from conniek [Conrad Kageyama]:
a comment to 41

I'm no hardware techie, but I believe that the ^PD70108 (V20) is sup-
posed to have dual data buses and 8080 mode, too. I've had the
70108 in my machines for a couple of months and have run into zero
problems. There seems to be a perceived improvement in screen
writing and batch handling. Most folks I know who have run their own
benchmarks are claiming 4-18 percent increase depending on how
they were testing, Curiously, the Norton Utilities System Information utili-
ty rates a PC with the 70108 as having 1.7 times the performance.
I have always used SideKick and SuperKey, but adding the new
Turbo Lightning has caused some problems in starting SideKick at
times with the Ctrl-Alt key combination ... I recently replaced the 8088
back into that computer and the SideKick problems disappeared.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #202, from rschnapp [Russell Schnapp]

I just added a V20 to my Columbia 1600-4 (XT clone). I got a speedup
of a whopping 5 percent (barely). This was on an arbitrary data move-
ment, arithmetic, and call protocol benchmark written in Turbo Pascal.
I'm actually waiting for CP/M-80 emulation.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #64, from rcook [Rick Cook]

Anyone know of a source for, or have any experience with, the V30?
That's the high-speed version of the V20. I'm particularly interested in
how well it works with an 8087, clock speedup, and Lattice C on a PC.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware #66, from georgehoffman:
a comment to 64

The V30 is to the V20 as the 8086 is to the 8088; that is, they ain't
plug-ins for each other. Or, the V30 is a souped-up 8086, as you like.

ibm.pc/pc.hardware W, from naro:
a comment to 64

I am happy to send anyone interested in the V20/V30 microprocessors
documentation if they send to me their name and address via BIX Mail.
In answering the questions raised in message #64, a V20/V30 works
with an 8087, executes code faster without modifying the clock or bus
cycle times, and will work fine with Lattice C. In fact, if the compiler has
a switch to generate 186 instructions, the V20/V30 can take advantage
of it, since it contains the full 186 instruction set in addition to some
new instructions for bits and bit fields.

Speeding Up the IBM PC AT

ibm.at/at. hardware #20, from dwb [Dave Burleigh]

When my machine is out of warranty, I'm hoping to change the crystal
to speed up the 80286 to 8 MHz, and simultaneously, to change my
current 80287 to the 8-MHz 80287. I'd like to hear the pros and cons
on this move from any of you who have tried it already. Are 150-ns

memory chips fast enough for 8-MHz operation? I have an Advantage
board populated with 150-ns 256K chips.

ibm.at/at.hardware #23:
a comment to 20

Another BIX user said that he had heard about potential problems with
certain copy-protected software that relies on a timing scheme.

ibm.at/at.hardware #25:
a comment to 23

A BIX user responded with the information that any software protected
with the SoftGuard protection scheme (such as dBASE III and
Framework) will have to be used with the slower crystal installed.

ibm.at/at.hardware #29:
a comment to 20

Another BIX user said that he had his system clock up to 9 MHz with
no real problems. He would sometimes get a few "Drive not ready"
messages when trying to read from a floppy, but a "retry" would always
work. He thought that the AT used one wait state: Did anyone know
how to get rid of it? He also thought that it is possible to speed up
hard-disk access by changing the interleave factor with the dealer
diagnostics disk. Had anyone tried this?

ibmat/at.hardware #32, from pittore [William Pittore]

I've been using an AT with a dealer-installed Rodime 20-megabyte hard
disk for about 8 months now with no disk problems of any kind. I've
also installed a 16-MHz crystal so that I'm running at 8 MHz. It's great
to develop software on this machine because the turnaround time is so
much faster than on the XTs at the office. This machine also has a beta
version of the Intel Above Board and an 80287. Both run fine at the
higher clock speed. Interesting note: If you check out Sheet 3 of 22 of
the AT system board schematic at U96 pin 11 you will see the designa-
tion 16 MHZ. It seems that the 12-MHz crystal was an afterthought.
Probably because Intel couldn't deliver guaranteed chips.

ibm.at/at. hardware #34, from leroy [Leroy Casterline]

I have been running my AT at 9 MHz (18-MHz crystal) since November
with no obvious ill effects. I ran at the standard clock speed after the
first drive failure, until my second drive died as well, when I reinstalled
the 18-MHz crystal. I have had no software problems at all, although I
don't use any SoftG uard-protected software.

ibmat/at.hardware #35, from leroy:
a comment to 29

Last time I had a drive failure, I played with changing my interleave fac-
tor. I ran benchmarks (copying a 2-megabyte file from one subdirectory
to another) with my interleave set to 2 and 3, and with the standard
crystal and an 18-MHz crystal. The results were very unimpressive (less
than a 1 percent difference, as I recall) at either clock speed. I don't
have the table I generated anymore, or I would reproduce it here.

ibmat/at.hardware #41, from pittore

I recently increased my clock speed to 18 MHz and was curious about
the effects it had on the operating temperature of the chips. I happen
to have a multichannel thermocouple meter (Analog Devices #2036),
and so I mounted a thermocouple on the 80287 and the 80286. The
80287 at the normal 12-MHz crystal ran at 95° F and the 80286 at 90°
F. With a 16-MHz crystal the 80287 ran at 112° F and the 80286 at

[continued)

382 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

NOTHING

• •

WN.

Even the best of personal computers
can have a bad day. Blackouts happen.
Usually at the worst possible time.

But power interruptions don't need to
be business interruptions. And lost power
shouldn't result in lost data. Not with the
POWERMAKEFT Micro UPS from Topaz.

Designed, specifically for hard disc and
critical-use business systems, Powermaker
Micro UPS ensures a continuous supply
of smooth sine wave power even during

a total blackout;

And there's more. Powermaker Micro
UPS also removes spikes and other
error-producing transients from incoming
power, protecting your PC's sensitive
circuitry.

So, if your PC needs a little help once
in a while, give it Powermaker Micro UPS
protection. For nothing down. Call us
today at (619) 279-0831, or contact your
local Square D distributor.

Inquiry 337 for End-Users.
Inquiry 338 for DEALERS ONLY.

TOPAZ

SQUARE T| COMPRNY

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 383

BEST Of BIX • BEST OF BIX • BEST OF BIX •

BIX

Best of BIX • best of BIX • Best of BIX

100° F. At 18 MHz the 80287 ran at 125° F and the 80286 at 108° F.
The ambient temperature was about 72° F, so the temperature rise for
the 80287 at 18 MHz was about 53°. Since there is probably some
thermal loss between the chip mount and the outside of the package, I
would imagine that the chip temperature is higher than I measured.
The operating range for the 80287 is up to 70° C, so it is about 20° C
below the limit, but I wonder if it has some effect on chip life?

ibm.at/at.hardware #42, from leroy:
a comment to 41

I've been running my AT at 9 MHz (18-MHz crystal) since sometime in
November, as I recall. I, too, was concerned with the temperature in-
crease on the 80286 but went ahead and did it anyway. I have experi-
enced no ill effects so far and think that if a problem was going to
show up, it would have done so by now. Temperature is definitely a fac-
tor in chip failures, and I suspect that the life of the 80286 will be
somewhat shortened, but I suspect that I will replace the AT due to
technological advances long before the 80286 dies (I hope!).

ibmat/at.hardware #44, from tswart [Ted Swart]:
a comment to 41

Your 80286 ran at 90° F at 12 MHz and 108° F at 18 MHz. This is a
difference of 18° F or about 10° C. Chemists usually reckon on a two-
to threefold increase in the rate of chemical reactions per 10° C rise in
temperature. This suggests that the 80286 may last two to three times
as long at 12 MHz as at 18 MHz. This is all very rough, of course, and
who really knows. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

ibmat/at.hardware #45, from dwb:
a comment to 41

Where did you get the replacement crystal? And what display controller
are you using? I've heard that the Hercules and other monochrome
graphics cards won't work correctly with a faster crystal in the AT. Have
you noticed any other problems, besides the higher temperature?

ibmat/at.hardware #47, from pittore:
a comment to 45

I believe I purchased the crystals from JDR Microdevices, which adver-
tises in the back of BYTE. I bought two of each just in case. I am cur-
rently running the standard IBM monochrome card and monitor and a
Hayes 1200B modem. Until last week (when Intel took it back) I also
had an Above Board, which also ran fine. So far no disk errors or
memory errors have shown up.

ibmat/at.hardware #52, from robinson [Phillip Robinson, Senior
Technical Editor, BYTE]:
a comment to 44

I don't believe solid-state devices will follow that sort of "10° for two- or
threefold change" rule at all. It is true that contaminants and dopants
(both undesired and desired) will move further in a hot chip. Also, in-
creased heat will cause certain materials, such as some of the electrical
metal connections on the surface of the chip, to migrate and thus
change the electrical properties of the chip. However, the most prob-
able failure mode due to increased heat is mechanical stress. The wire
bonds to the chip and the leads of the package itself are more likely to
develop bad joints and poor contact than the chip is to self-destruct
through diffusion of materials. Don't worry about that sort of
temperature and the shortened life of your chips. Worry instead that
your computer may get so hot that a chip may not work properly while
you are in the middle of a massive job; the glitch could erase or cor-
rupt your data or program. Chips are cheap, your time is not.

Print Screen in BASIC

ibm.pc/pcsoftware #45, from rmalloy

I can't find the original message, but I believe someone requested a
way to do a Print Screen from within BASIC. Here's a very simple,
elegant technique that is modeled after a suggestion from Joe Fleming,
sysop of the Tampa IBM PC BBS.

100 A! = -51973.8
120 B = VARPTR(A)
140 CALL B
160 LPRINT CHR$(12)

BASIC apparently stores the number -51973.8 in such a way that
when you do a VARPTR on it, you end up with the address of the Print
Screen routine. Amazing. But it does work.

Customizing Your DOS Prompt

ibm.pc/other #18, from bbl126 [Mike Guffey)

Basic and Advanced Usages of the "prompt" Command

This article assumes the reader has progressed beyond the status of
novice DOS user and can decipher some of the less cryptic passages
in Microsoft DOS documentation. Where additional instruction might
help, another source of information will be cited. Technical explanations
of what is happening will not appear here.

Your MS-DOS or PC-DOS (2.1 or above) documentation lists a resi-
dent (built-in) command that allows you to change the A> or B>
prompt. Depending on your particular documentation, you may be able
to use some of this command's features, but probably not all (until you
read the article below). This is an overview of just what you can do
with the "prompt" command.

Most documentation explains (usually less than lucidly) how to
change the basic A> or B> prompt. But some MS-DOS users never
realize that in addition to the basic options, they can probably

• cause the prompt to display in reverse video (text in normal video)

• redefine the 10 function keys

• redefine the Ctrl, Alt, and Shift combinations of the 10 function keys

• redefine other keys as well

• perform these 'tricks" from the DOS command line or with .BAT files

Basic Nifty Tricks

Why change the DOS prompt from the basic A> or B>? Let's sup-
pose that for some reason or another you have either different versions
of DOS on different disks or the DOS COMMAND.COM file on several
specific-function disks. It might be nice to know whenever you are at
the command level either which version of DOS you are using a which
special-function disk you are using. Or perhaps you; don't use an on-
board clock and might find it handy to display the time each time the
prompt is displayed. Or maybe you are simply tired of the humdrum
A> or B>.

It is these needs that most DOS documentation addresses. But many
of us never read documentation/instructions unless all else fails. So,
here are a couple of quick examples of what prompt can do. For addi-
tional instruction, read/re-read your DOS documentation or obtain the
excellent book Running MSWS by Van Wolverton (ISBN
0-914845-07-1).

The prompt command has several operators/characters that produce
specific results. In order to use them, they are preceded by a dollar
sign. Several or all of these operators can be used on the same com-
mand line (or within the same .BAT file). When invoked, they are not
separated by spaces.

For example, the command

[continued)

384 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

TRIAL EXAMINATION ORDER FORM

YES! I would like to learn how to make any computer do exactly what I want it to do
and would like to examine the first module in the Series absolutely free. If I decide to
keep it, I will pay just $24.95 plus $2.25 shipping and handling. I will then receive
future modules automatically, one every 4 to 6 weeks. Each of the 1 modules in the
Series is $24.95 plus $2.25 shipping and handling and comes on the same 1 5-day
Trial Examination basis. There is no minimum number of modules that I must buy
and I may cancel at any time simply by notifying you.

If I do not choose to keep the first module, I will return all materials in good condition
and pay nothing. Future modules will be canceled and I will be under no further
obligation.

Name-

Please Print

StreeL

City/State/ZIP_

Phone Number (

The interactive disks included with this series will run only on IBM-PC or IBM-PC compatible computers.
All orders subject to approval and payable in U.S. funds only. Available in U.S. and Canada only.

■

2SS2SSS555SS

m

■

CREATE
I YOUR OWN

I SOFTWARE

!,..."„

i

1

.5.

I

Ten modules teach you how
to write your own programs
or modify existing software
to fit your needs:

• Getting Started in
Programming & Software
Design

• Attacking the Problem

• How to Design the Solution
and Arrange It Logically

• Coding the Program: High
Level Languages

• Coding the Program:
Assembly Language

• Testing and Debugging
Made Easy

• Creating Meaningful
Documentation

• Modifying & Updating
Existing Programs

• Tools & Tricks for Program
Design

• Writing Advanced Programs

2500-026

Post Office

Will Not

Deliver Without

First Class

Stamp

m

McGraw-Hill Continuing Education Center

3939 Wisconsin Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20016-2876

I. .I. III. ..II II.II....I.II..I.I...I.II..I..I.I

Make Any

er Do Exactly What You Want With McGraw-Hill's

Contemporary

•* w. * ^^

From Writing Your Own Programs to
Modifying Existing Software, Here's the New,
Easy, and Low Cost Way to Unlock the Secrets
of Your Computer

Whether you use computers for business, for personal
applications, or for fun, off-the-shelf programs
will never do everything you want them to do
for you. That's because they were written by
programmers to satisfy what they perceived as
the needs of the greatest number of potential
users — often missing some or many of
your specific needs .

That's why McGraw-Hill's new Contemporary
Programming and Software Design Series
teaches you how to create your own software . . . either from
scratch or by making key modifications to existing programs.

There is nothing magical about it. You learn the process of
building a computer program step-by-step with McGraw-Hill
Concept Modules sent to you one at a time, once a month.
Each of the ten modules in the Series takes you through an
important step in the development of the structure and
detailed logic of a program, including testing, debugging, and documentation.

Unique Interactive Hands-On Instruction

Each module includes an easy-to-understand guide PLUS a 5 l A" floppy disk
containing typical programs and interactive instruction that you can run on any
IBM or IBM-compatible computer for hands-on experience.

In the first Module, for example, when your
sample program (Declining Interest Loans)
appears on your screen, you'll find errors on
certain program lines. You'll also see that the
program is only three-quarters completed.

Now comes the fun part. You'll discover how
this program is built, and in the process you'll
learn how to identify and correct errors. And
by the end of Module 1, you'll actually have
completed this program yourself.

But there's more. Special graphics on your screen work in conjunction with
the accompanying guide to amplify, illustrate, and deepen your understanding of
software design principles.

Learn the Foundation of All Computer Languages

Although the Series teaches you programming procedures, it is not aimed at

any one language or machine. Why? Because 95% of the pro-
gramming process is carried out using design techniques that
are independent of a specific language or machine. Nevertheless,
we include enough training in BASIC and machine language to
get you started. You'll find that the whole process of learning new
languages will be greatly accelerated once you complete the Series.

Create a Complete, Customized

Family Financial Package As You Learn

The sample programs you work with throughout the
Series are excellent learning tools. But they're more
than that. By combining the sample programs onto one
master disk, you'll create your own family financial
package that will help you balance your budget, figure
loan amortization, and much more. And — of course —
you'll be able to further modify your financial
package to fit your own specific needs!

15-Day No-Risk TVial

To order your first module without risk, send
the postage-paid card today. Examine the first
module for 15 days and see how the Series will

help you
make any
computer do
exactly what
you want it
to do!

If someone has beaten you to the card, write to us
for ordering information about the Contemporary
Programming and Software Design Series.

McGraw-Hill

Continuing Education Center

3939 Wisconsin Avenue
Washington, DC-20016

IBM is a registered trademark ol International Business Machines. Inc.

m

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 385

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

EIX

•BEST OF BIX • BEST OF BIX • BEST OF BC

prompt $t_$v_$p_QMODEM IN A ==> THIS IS DRIVE $n$g

might display

15:36:03.63

IBM Personal Computer DOS Version 2.11

Current Directory = B:\

QMODEM IN A ==> THIS IS DRIVE B>_

A detailed discussion is pointless here. (The operators are listed in
your DOS documentation.) You can do several things after reading your
own basic prompt documentation. But very seldom' will you encounter
this information: Typing the prompt command without operators
(arguments) will restore the basic A> or B> prompt. (But it will not
cancel everything you can achieve with the prompt command.) This is
nice to know if you are doing a lot of disk swapping and it no longer
becomes important to know some of what the prompt command will
tell you. So the above complex display will cease and merely show the
current drive if you will type the prompt command on a line by itself
and follow it with a < RETURN >.

Intermediate Level Trick

Some of us are always meddling. For those of us who do, there is
another feature of the prompt command that will allow the prompt to be
displayed in reverse video and the other command-line data in normal
video. This will not work in all situations. You will need to be using the
normal ANSI.SYS device driver on your initial COMMAND.COM disk.

For example, the command

prompt $e[7m$n$g$e[m

will cause the normal A> or B> prompt to appear in reverse video.
The remainder of the command line (what you enter) will appear in
normal video.
Another example

prompt $e[7m MSDOS $n$g$e[m

might cause the prompt " MSDOS A>" to appear in reverse video.
The leading blank makes the display more clear on some monitors.
(The "$n" above will cause the letter of the currently logged drive to
appear in the command line.) Remember, this trick will not work if you
are not using ANSI.SYS in a normal fashion on the C0MMAND.COM
disk you initially boot the system with. Some users will discover that by
playing with the sequences following "$e" above, they may achieve
some interesting results on color monitors. The "$e" allows usage of an
escape sequence and is beyond the scope of this article. (Hint: [m =
[Om.)

Advanced Level Usage

One of the most interesting uses of the prompt command was recent-
ly discussed by Harold M. Bauman in his Heath/Zenith column in the
June '85 issue of Computer Shopper. His techniques apply to almost
all IBM compatibles and are explained in less technical fashion below.
The prompt command can be used to redefine keys either from the
DOS command level or with use of a .BAT file. The keys can either be
redefined one at a time or in a sequence of commands, so you can
determine the definition of some keys to be anything from a single
keystroke to numeric formulas to complex strings of data. (Harold
Bauman's column is a little more comprehensive in explaining some of
the other possibilities of this technique than the description below.)

This means that in many applications, you do not need commercial
or public-domain software to redefine keys. You can do it yourself. But,
it will not work with all applications programs, and it may interfere with
or override the preset definitions of some software. It may be of use in
adding additional keyboard definitions to programs that have only a

limited number of specially defined keys. (For example, Symphony only
uses about 23 of the possible 40 function [F] key combinations.)
The syntax of the basic redefinition command is as follows:

prompt $e[0;n;'def";13p

prompt

basic setup, needed in most definitions
(also see note 4 in Appendix A)
n — numeric value of key to be redefined (see Appendix B)
u def" — alphanumeric string prompt assigned to the key

(quotes required)
13p — places a < RETURN > at string; deletion of 13 ends string with-
out a < RETURN >

Here is an example of what can be done from the command level:

prompt $e[0;68;"DIR /p";13p redefines F10 to give a paged
prompt DIR command of logged drive and

restores basic MS-DOS prompt

A .BAT file can be created to define keys more simply and without
having to worry about getting the syntax exactly right for each defini-
tion, The following is an example you might call DEFINKEY^BAT:

prompt $e[0;%1;%2;°/o3;13p
prompt

Then, the command sequence

DEFINKEY 68 "DIR /p"< RETURN >

will achieve the same results as the more complicated example above.
This method can allow strings of up to 8 words (alphanumeric com-
binations separated by spaces) to be defined. (The %1 above is used
to allow for the redefined key to be specified. %2 and %3 are for the
two "words" in the string.) This .BAT file technique has limitations and
may not save you much time.

Commands can also be added to an AUTOEXEC.BAT file to define
several keys on start-up. In such situations, the full syntax prompt com-
mands should be used to avoid confusion and to maintain consistency
on each start-up.

This undocumented usage of the DOS prompt command has many
possibilities limited only by a user's imagination or willingness to experi-
ment. There is more to this "trick" than an alternative to key redefinition
software. It is a demonstration of the real power of Microsoft DOS.

Appendix A
When redefining keys with prompt:

1. The new definitions will not be recognized by programs or applica-
tions that bypass DOS to get keyboard information. BASIC is an
example.

2. Use of the prompt command without operators or arguments will not
restore the original keyboard definitions. The system must be rebooted.

3. If keys are redefined with the prompt command in a .BAT file, the
ECHO command must be on or the redefinitions will not be recog-
nized.

4. After a sequence of redefinitions with prompt, the MS-DOS prompt
itself must be redefined (as shown in the Basic section above) or the
prompt command (without operators) must be entered. Otherwise, there
will be no prompt at the MS-DOS command level and the cursor will
blink at the far left column.

Appendix B
Key values used for redefining keys with prompt:

F1 = 59 F2 = 60 F3
F6 = 64 F7 = 65 F8

61 F4 = 62 F5= 63
66 F9 = 67F10 = 68

(continued)

386 B YTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Telecommun

HAYES... Leading
A Telecommunications
Revolution From Atlanta
and San Francisco.

We've built a powerful
engineering and technical team
here at Hayes. It's been our
strength and the reason for our
success from the very beginning. Our
focus has been on recruiting and developing
the talent it takes to do more than merely
compete, but to lead. The result has been a
story few in the industry can equal.

For those of you who have searched far
for just such an environment, where talent is provided
the freedom and encouragement to grow, then perhaps
it's time to take a good, hard look at Hayes, with opportunities
in both San Francisco and Atlanta. There's a future in it.

• VLSI/DSP DEVELOPMENT ENGINEERS

• HARDWARE/SOFTWARE DESIGN ENGINEERS

• SOFTWARE PROGRAMMERS & ANALYSTS

• MANUFACTURING/TEST ENGINEERS

• PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT ENGINEERS

• QUALITY/RELIABILITY ENGINEERS

Interested, qualified candidates should forward a
confidential resume to: Hayes Microcomputer
Products, Inc. Dept 92-317, P.O. Box 105203,
Atlanta, GA30348. An Equal Opportunity
Employer, M/F.

Inqirirv 152

I

1

milllllllk

Say yes to the
future with Hayes.

Best of BIX «

l BEST OF BIX i

1 Best of BIX •

EIX

• Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of bi:

Shift-F1 = 84 Shift-F2 = 85 Shift-F3 = 86 Shift-F4 = 87
Shift-F5 = 88 Shift-F6 = 89 Shift-F7 = 90 Shift-F8 = 91
Shift-F9 = 92 Shift-F10 = 93

Ctrl-F1 = 94 Ctrl-F2 = 95 Ctrl-F3 = 96 Ctrl-F4 = 97
Ctrl-F5 = 98 Ctrl-F6 = 99 Ctrl-F7 = 100 Ctrl-F8 = 101
Ctrl-F9 = 102 Ctrl-F10 = 103

Alt-F1 = 104 A!t-F2 = 105 Alt-F3 = 106 Alt-F4 = 107
Alt-F5 = 108 Alt-F6 = 109 Alt-F7 = 110 Alt-F8 = 111
Alt-F9 = 112 AU-F10 = 113 AIM = 120 Alt-2 = 121
Alt-3 = 122 Alt-4 = 123 Alt-5 = 124 Alt-6 = 125
Alt-7 = 126 Alt-8 = 127 Alt-9 = 128 Alt-0 = 129
Alt- = 130 Alt- = =131 Alt-A = 30 Alt-B = 48
Alt-C = 46 Alt-D = 32 Alt-E = 18 Alt-F = 33 Alt-G = 34
Alt-H = 35 AIM = 23 Alt-J = 36 Alt-K = 37 Alt-L = 38
Alt-M = 50 Alt-N = 49 Alt-0 = 24 Alt-P = 25 Alt-Q = 16
Alt-R = 19 Alt-S = 31 Alt-T = 20 Alt-U = 22 Alt-V = 47
Alt-W = 17 Alt-X = 45 Alt-Y = 21 Alt-Z = 44

Home = 71 UpArrow = 72 PgUp = 73 Left Arrow = 75
End = 79 DnArrow = 80 PgDn = 81 Right Arrow = 11
Ins = 82 Del = 83

Ctrl-PrtSc = 114 Ctrl-Left Arrow = 115 Ctrl-End =117
Ctrl-Home = 119 Ctrl-Rght Arrow = 1 16 Ctrl-PgUp = 132

Ctrl-PgDn =118

ibm.pc/other #19, from richard [Richard Shuford):
a comment to 18

One minor point: the lowercase "p" at the very end of the prompt com-
mand is a vital part of the redefinition command, not just part of the se-
quence to insert a carriage return.

A lot can be done with this style of keyboard redefinition. Long ago I
devised a batch file that used this mechanism to change the QWERTY
keyboard arrangement to a Dvorak layout (".pyfgcrl arrangement). If
anyone is interested in seeing it, I could post it in this conference.

ibm.pc/other #20:
a comment to 18

Another user added that there is no requirement to use prompt to re-
define your keys. He places all his DOS key redefines in a file and then
TYPEs the file. This allows him to have several different files with a cou-
ple of different key redefines.

ibm.pc/other #26, from richard:
a comment to 20

Quite true. You do not have to use prompt to redefine your keys. But I
have found it quite a bit safer. When you put the naked Escape se-
quences into a file, then later forget what is in that file and issue the
TYPE command to examine it, you can end up redefining your key-
board when you don't want to This can be either annoying or
disastrous, depending on what else you are doing at the time. The
limited environment space establishes a limit on how many keys can be
redefined at a given time. My Dvorak-layout redefinition fills up the
space. Once I inadvertently executed the redefinition batch file twice in
a row, causing the machine to hang in never-never land. Since that
time, I have been careful about executing keyboard redefinitions,
although I do execute them every day.

ibm.pc/other #27, from brucester [Bruce McPherson, McPherson Con-
sulting Inc.]:
a comment to 26

You must have the device driver ANSI.SYS installed to allow you to use
all these nice features. And another point not mentioned in message
#18 was the fact that you must put 00 before all extended scan codes.
You must be careful, because if you aren't, you can redefine the regular
keys on your keyboard and then you're really in trouble!

MACINTOSH

In the Macintosh conference, most of the discussions involve questions
and answers to individual problems. This month, we summarize topics
such as software packages, public-domain programs, use of a RAM
disk, and difficulties with fonts.

Software Packages

macintosh/software #27, from bbayer [Barry Bayer]

Has anyone experience with a program called REDRYDER?

macintosh/software #28, from russwin [Russ Winslow]:
a comment to 27

Red Ryder is a program written by Scott Watson who describes it as "a
user-supported asynchronous modem communications program for the
Apple Macintosh" It seems to be the general consensus that it is the
best of its type around. Red is presently in beta test for version 6.0 at
the E level Oust out), but the C level is perhaps the most solid at the
moment (D never came out). There is a "procedure" feature that allows
the user to write his own instructions to Red, actually a mini-language
that allows one to automate command sequences ranging from simple
two-liners (dial up) to complex programs that can automate whole ses-
sions. Red supports XMODEM, Kermit, and ASCII protocols and knows
how to deal with the new MacBinary format (goodbye, binhex). Sup-
ported emulations are TTY, VT-100 and VT-52.

There is a "Macro Key" feature that allows you to program 10 func-
tion keys at a time and record them in files. These support short (40-
character) keystroke sequences (which can also be used to call up the
larger Procedure files).

Lots of other good stuff, not the least of which is the extensive
documentation (60+ pages), the price (he asks $40), and the great
support. [Editors note: You can download Red Ryder from BYTEnet
Listings at (617) 861-9764 or from BIX, or you can obtain it from The
FreeSoft Company, 10828 Lacklink St., St. Louis, MO 63114, (314)
428-8057]

XLISP

Next, a user asks David Betz (dbetz) about his public-domain XLISP
program, particularly its use on 128K-byte Macs.

macintosh/software #51, from dbetz [David Betz]

It turns out that version 1.4 didn't work very well on a 128K Mac either.
Version 1.5 fails immediately instead of allowing you to work for a while
and then fail. XLISP really needs about 128K of its own to play with.
The 128K Mac only allows about 80K for applications programs. I
recommend 512K for any version of XLISP Also, all of the sample LISP
code is also on my BBS system. I will upload it also when the upload
facility works.

In the next message, David discusses a forthcoming version of
XLISP.

(continued^

388 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 109 for End-Users. Inquiry IIO for DEALERS ONLY— ♦

4'i'.Ii:u".i(r;

I iM\

fc§ §

Using good accounting software can help you determine not only where your
business stands, but where it's headed.

Of course, when you use great accounting software, the direction becomes quite obvious.

CYMA

McGRAW-HIU
80Q-292CYMA

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

EIX

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • Best of BIX

macintosh/software #52, from dbetz

XLISP version 1.6 hasn't been released yet. I have distributed a
prerelease version for both the Macintosh and the IBM PC, but the final
version is still being developed. If you have any suggestions as to what
should be included, let me know soon.

RAM Disks on a 512K Mac

macintosh/software #53, from bbayer

TITLE: How to Use All That RAM?

Assume a 512K Mac, no external disk drive, no switcher installed, and
a program that will run in a couple of hundred K or three. Let's also
assume the product makes but modest data read/write but does bring
in modules from disk.
The following are possible:

I. RAM disk loaded with

A. System Folder

B. System Folder and Application

C. Application only

D. Data Files only

II. TurboCharger

Which of these five possibilities is preferred?

macintosh/software #54, from chrisv [Chris Vagnini]:
a comment to 53

Barry— One thing that is usually not good is to put your data files on a
RAM disk— unless you're only reading from them— since those are the
only files you don t have on a real disk. The fastest, I've found, is to put
the System, Finder, Imagewriter (if necessary), and the application on
the RAM disk. There is not always room for this, though, so some other
configuration would have to be used. Even just the System and Finder
in RAM will speed things up a lot if there is no system on the disk
you'll run the application from. (Otherwise, the application's disk will
become the system disk every time you run it.) TurboCharger will
speed things up, too, but it takes time before it "learns" which disk sec-
tors will be used the most. I have not used it much, so I'm not sure ex-
actly how fast it would get with continued use. Hope this helps.

macintosh/software #55 from michaelsouth [Michael South]:
a comment to 53

You usually have to have Finder and System on the same disk. When a
program (on a disk) is launched (by Finder), that disk does not
become the start-up disk (i.e., the disk whose System file is used)
unless said disk has a copy of Finder on it.

I think it is possible to get around that, at least with Assimilation's
Ramdisk. The idea is to create a RAM disk that has System and your
application on it and sort of boot from it. You need two floppies, "A"
and "B." "A" has on it System, Finder, Ramdisk, your application, and
anything else you'll want in RAM. "B" has System and Finder.

1. Run Ramdisk on floppy "A." Choose "Create Automatically" option.
Include System, application, and other files you want. Don't need to
include Ramdisk, Finder, or Desktop.

2. Select (click on) the application in floppy "A." Choose "Set Startup"
from Special menu. This will cause your application to become the
start-up program on the RAM diskif).

3. Now we want to delete Finder from floppy l A." We can only do this if
it is not the current start-up disk.

a. Open Finder on floppy "B" by Option-Command-double-clicking it.
This will run it, making floppy "B" the start-up.

b. Eject floppy "B," insert floppy "A," throw Finder away, and Empty
Trash.

To use the RAM disk, reboot the computer using floppy "A." You'll be
running the computer without its ever having sniffed a Finder. The con-
sequence is that exiting your application program will kill the system
(no Finder to exit to).

Binhex Files

In the question.answr topic, a user asks about the various types of
binhex files (text-file representations of Macintosh applications that can
be downloaded or uploaded) he's observed on bulletin-board systems.

macintosh/question.answr #20, from frankr [Frank Richards]

There are three generations of binhex floating around:

binhex3 makes/decodes ".hex" files.

binhex4 is ".hqx'l

binhex5 uses ".bin" (will handle .hqx as well).

binhex.bas is freeware. [Editor's note: You can download binhex.bas
from BYTEnet Listings at (617) 861-9764 or from BIX.]

Fonts with MacTerminal Files

macintosh/question.answr #44, from szpak [Mark Szpakowski]

TITLE: Default Font in MacWrite

This also relates to MacTerminal. Let's say I capture text with MacTer-
minal, then want to edit it with MacWrite: What is the default font used
with MacTerminal, and what's the best way to get MacWrite to match it?
Geneva 10 point comes close, but it's still not quite the same.

macintosh/question.answr #45:
a comment to 44

A BIX user responds that if you have the Resource Mover, you can
copy the MacTerminal font into the System font resource for general use
by all applications. The Resource Editor won't do the job, since you
need to name the font in order to have it appear in a menu.

Alternative Screen Buffer

In the tech.talk conference, Michael South raises a question about
using the alternate screen buffer: He gets a number of responses that
also raise the question of good programming techniques.

macintosh/tech. talk #50, from michaelsouth

TITLE: Finder Launch with 2nd Screen Page

Is there any way to make Finder launch a program with the "Reserve

2nd screen page" bit set?

I saw a trick in a MacAsm demo for making an application relaunch
itself with the bit set, but wondered if there was a way to do it in Finder.

macintosh/tech .talk #51, from ephraim [Ephraim Vishniac]:
a comment to 50

"Is there any way to make Finder launch a program with the 'Reserve
2nd screen page' bit set?"

Even if there is, please don't do it! Your program won't run on a Mac
XL or on future Macintoshes. A friend of mine is currently attempting
the Herculean task of making Megaroids (the only alternate screen pro-
gram I know of) run on an XL and >512K Macs. Authors can save
people a lot of time by not building in what they know to be hardware
dependencies.

macintosh/tech.talk #53, from frankb [Frank Boosman]:
a comment to 51

(continued)

390 BYTE • FEBRUARY I986

AT&T presents maxims for better international communication.

ometimes, it's better
to put all your eggs
in one basket.

AT&T International Services offer
the strongest, sturdiest basket for
your telecommunications needs.

Because AT&T has a long history of making
international connections and developing
international services.

AT&T offers a wide range of international
services for your company, whether you're
involved in manufacturing, distribution,
marketing or any other function. AT&T
International Long Distance Service, for
example, helps your company build better
business relationships. AT&T International
800 Service encourages the steady flow of
contact between customers, salespersons
and suppliers, so you can maintain a
competitive edge.

But how do you choose the services that are
right for you? It's simple. Just contact your
Account Executive or Sales Specialist at
AT&T. They're experts in a wide range of
businesses, and they can offer you our entire
basket to accommodate your needs. Together
you and your AT&T representative can tailor
services and applications that work for you.

To learn more about AT&T's state-of-the-art
telecommunications and the applications they
have for your business, please contact your
Account Executive at AT&T Communications
now. Or call a Sales Specialist at the toll-free
number below.

1 800 222-0400 Ext. 515

©1985 AT&T Communications

International service to and from continental U.S.

AT&T

The right choice.

FEBRUARY I986 -BYTE 391

Best of BIX • Best of BIX • best of BIX •

EIX

ST OF BIX

"... [programs using the alternate screen buffer] won't run . . . on future
Macintoshes. A friend of mine is currently attempting the Herculean
task of making Megaroids (the only alternate screen program I know of)
run on an XL and >512K Macs."

I hadn't heard that Apple was going to kill the alternate screen buffer
in future Macintosh models, nor that they had issued guidelines to this
effect.

As for Megaroids, why did the programmer hard-wire the locations
in? The task wouldn't be "Herculean" if he or she hadn't. In fact, there
would be no task at all, as I understand it.

"Please don't do it."

Sorry, but people are doing it already. I've seen demos of prototype
stuff that blew other animation out of the water. QuickDraw is just too
slow in some circumstances to do it any other way. I wouldn't hesitate
to, if it meant the difference between smoothness and flicker. . .

macintosh/tech .talk #54, from ephraim:
a comment to 53

In the document "Future Macintosh Architectures" (part of the May soft-
ware supplement), Apple had a list of questions for developers to ask
themselves. Negative responses to the questions indicated probable
portability problems. One of the questions was something to the effect
"Do you use the alternate screen buffer?" They went on to explain that
it was not available on the XL and might not be available on future
Macs.

The suggested technique for avoiding flicker is to draw into a
nonscreen area, then block-copy into the real screen after syncing with
the clock tick.

Megaroids is a difficult problem because the authors did several
things that affect portability. One, they used the alternate screen buffer.
Also, they used fixed addresses for both the real and alternate screens.

macintosh/tech.talk #55, from michaelsouth:
a comment to 53

I was toying with the idea of using the second screen buffer in order to
generate 4-shade gray. Two ticks with page 1, one tick with page 2,
which would make page 1 twice as bright as page 2. Of course, if you
don't like flicker. . .

128K ON A 512K Mac?

macintosh/tech.talk #56, from ccrawfor [Chris Crawford]

Here's a cute problem I have for which I would appreciate other peo-
ple's suggestions: I have been using a 128K Mac and have refrained
from fattening it because the software I develop must run on a 128K
Mac. However, I am getting sick of putting up with skinniness, especial-
ly with the price of fattening falling so low. What I would like to have is
a Fat Mac that can be made to act like a skinny Mac when I need to
test my software.

The first (apparent) solution is to fool the Memory Manager by
changing a system global. There is the system global MemTop that
points to the top of RAM. I'm not sure I trust this solution; how do I
know that the value of MemTop was not used during cold start to set
other values related to the operation of the heap? Setting MemTop after
everybody else has used it may be an exercise in futility. That damn
memory manager is just too messy for me to be confident that such a
scheme would produce trustworthy test results.

Another strategy is to use some software to fabricate a 128K Mac.
For example, Switcher might be used to create a 128K Mac. But how
can I be sure that a Switcher segment with 128K allocated to it is func-
tionally identical to a 128K Mac? Similarly, I could use a RAM disk,

allocate all but 128K of RAM to the RAM disk, and treat the remainder
as a "true" 128K Mac, but again there remains the problem of cer-
titude. Who knows what that RAM-disk software is doing? Who knows
exactly how much RAM is being used? If either of these two solutions
yields a machine with 128K bytes plus, say, a hundred extra bytes, I
could ship software that will crash on a regular 128K Mac. Not
acceptable!

A third solution I am considering involves a hardware modification. I
have asked the techs at the fattening shop if they can devise a simple
switch that disables the extra RAM. They seem to think that it's a sim-
ple matter of disabling some decoding lines by pulling them high, and
that certainly makes sense to me. Two things bother me: (1) How do
you disable % of single chip? and (2) I am reluctant to desecrate my
Mac with wires and holes in the case and so forth.

Does anybody have any good ideas on this problem?

macintosh/tech.talk #57, from ephraim:
a comment to 56

You're quite right that setting MemTop after the system is up does not
give a good 128K simulation. Two problems come to mind immediately:
First, the size of the system heap is set during boot depending on the
size of memory. So, you'd have a "fat" system heap, but a "skinny" ap-
plication heap. Second, the screen wouldn't be adjacent to (and taken
from) the application heap space. So, your application heap wouldn't
be quite the right size either.
A hardware solution seems like the only airtight one.

macintosh/tech.talk #58, from billt [Bill Tuttle]:
a comment to 56

If you have FEdit 3.0 or Apple's old disk utility program, they will write
128K boot blocks to a disk, which when booted will look like a 128K
Mac. The Apple utility program does this by holding the option key
when you select Write Boot Blocks. I don't remember how FEdit works,
but it's in the documentation on it.

macintosh/tech.talk #59:
a comment to 56

A BIX user responds:

Do you have to continue writing for 128K Macs? In the most recent
wave of new product announcements, Apple quietly discontinued the
128K Mac. Granted, there are a lot of 128K machines out there, but
there is already great pressure on them to upgrade if they want any
new software.

macintosh/tech.talk #60, from ccrawfor:
a comment to 58

Thanks for the pointer— I found the documentation-on it and the soft-
ware in the pile of stuff went with the Software Supplement. Looks like
you have saved me a passle of trouble! (Maybe I ought to read the
documentation next time.)

macintosh/tech.talk #61, from ccrawfor:
a comment to 59

We seriously considered changing the specs for my software to drop
the Skinny Mac, but after much humming and hawing we decided to
stay with the 128K limit. Two factors entered into this: (1) the belief that
many (most?) Macs were purchased before Fat Mac was available and
(2) a suspicion that only the elite 30 percent of Skinny Mac owners are
fattening their Macs. Nobody knows the real fraction, of course, and it
is bound to increase substantially by the time any newly initiated project
reaches the marketplace, but none of us felt like betting the farm on
such guesswork. ■

392 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Get the Picture with

jtfQwe

PHOTOBASE is a soft-
ware package that works
with data base manage-
ment systems such as:
dbase II* R.Base 4000*
and the IBM Filing
Assistant*.

PC-EYE is a high speed,
high resolution video
digitizer board that lets
you capture anything you
can see.

Now you can open up a whole
new dimension in data base
applications by merging real-life
pictures with popular data base
management systems. Pictures
of people, products, diagrams,
maps, company logos — what-
ever you want to photograph —
can be integrated with your data
base. Consider these typical
applications:

Security — verify those employees
who have authorized clearance to
limited access areas. A data base
containing employee pictures and
personnel records can be searched
and displayed for visual
verification.

Signature Verification — increase
the efficiency of credit checks by
adding pictures of customer
signatures to your financial data
base records.

Real Estate — add pictures of
houses to on-line real estate
listings for faster property identifi-
cation and improved sales
presentations.

Electronic Cataloging — pictures
of products can be combined with a
data base system containing pro-
duct specifications, pricing,
availability and much more.

Customers, distributors and sales
personnel can quickly search data
and view the resulting product/
picture information on one screen.
Files can be updated easily,
quickly.

CHORUS

It's Easy

With a simple keystroke, pop-out of
your data base system and into the
PHOTOBASE menu. Capture
images of text, photos, artwork and
3-dimensional objects with an
ordinary video camera and our
high resolution PC-EYE™ video
digitizer. Pop back into your data
base system and add the picture
name to your data base like you
would any other piece of
information. The full functionality of
the data base system is preserved,
but the resulting display is text and
picture information on one screen.

Pictures are displayed in the upper
right quadrant of the screen at a
resolution of 320 x 200 with 16
colors or levels of gray. Text
information from data base records
fills the rest of the screen. Pictures
can also be exploded to full screen.

Call or write and we will send you
information on PHOTOBASE,
PC-EYE, compatible cameras and
other imaging equipment in the
Chorus Family of products.
(603) 424-2900 or
1-800-OCHORUS.

TM PHOTOBASE and PC-EYE are trademarks of
CHORUS Data Systems.
'dBase II .is a trademark of Ashton-Tate; R-Base
4000 is a trademark of Microrim, Inc.; IBM Filing
Assistant is a trademark of International Business
Machines Corporation.

Inquiry 63

CHORUS Data Systems, Inc., 6 Continental Blvd., P.O. Box 370, Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054

Using an S100 Bus?
More Power to You, from Lomas.

For most S 100 Bus users, the most sensible
upgrade to IBM-PC compatibility is an IBM-PC or
equivalent machine. But for a select few of you—
Systems Integrators and OEMs— that simply isn't
enough.

THAT'S WHEN LOMAS DATA PRODUCTS
DELIVERS MORE!

Our IBM-PC compati ble systems give you twice
the power of an.lBM-PC-AI That's particularly
important for scientific and CAD applications. As
faster 8086 family microprocessors become avail-
able, your LDP system is easily upgradeabie to
save your current hardware and software invest-
ment. And all our systems are based on the IEEE
696 (S100) Bus, which allows you to choose from
over 150 manufacturers for add-on and special
function boards. Because our boards are Bus ori-
ented, Systems Integrators can provide IBM com-
patibility in applications which require rack
mounting or card cage packaging.

The LDP IBM-PC compatible boards will give
your Bus three to five times the performance of an
IBM-PC. Complete with PC-DOS compatibility and
multi-tasking. And LDP offers them all. From CPU
and I/O boards to graphics boards and disk con-
trollers. Boards as reliable as they are cost-
effective.

LDP also excels in customer support. As a Sys-
tems Integrator or OEM, you can talk directly to
our factory support personnel who work with our
products every day— the people who have the
answers.

Remember— when you need S100 Bus IBM-PC
compatible systems and board sets, you need LDP
We have no competition.

For more information about all our S 100 Bus
products, call or write for a brochure.

rT

Lomas Data Products

182 Cedar Hill

WHAT'S NEW

NEW SYSTEMS

Single-Board 68020
System

GMX Micro-20 is a
single-board computer
based on a 12.5-MHz
Motorola 68020 micropro-
cessor, It comes with 2
megabytes of 32-bit wide
RAM. up to 2 56K bytes of
32-bit wide EPROM. and a
5 '/4-inch floppy-disk con-
troller. It has four serial
ports, an 8-bit parallel port,
a SAS1 peripheral interface,
and a 16-bit expansion con-
nector for additional I/O in-
terfaces. An MC68881 float-
ing-point processor is
optional.

The board measures 8.8
by 5.7 5 inches and uses the
same power connector and
supply voltages as a stan-
dard 5 Va -inch floppy-disk
drive. Included with the
system are a second board
that provides RS-2 32C level
translation and four DB-2 5
connectors for the serial
ports, and a PROM with
Motorola's 020Bug moni-
tor/debugger and hardware
diagnostics. A PROMable
operating system is optional;
both the UniFLEX and OS-9
operating systems are
available. The GMX Micro-20
costs $27 50. For more infor-
mation, contact GMX Inc.,
1337 West 37th Place.
Chicago. IL 60609. (312)
927-5510.
Inquiry 565.

Transportable AT
from Corona

The Corona ATP trans-
portable computer from
Corona Data Systems is an
IBM PC AT-compatible per-
sonal computer based on an
8-MHz Intel 80286 micropro-
cessor with no wait states. It
comes in two configurations:
The ATP-8-Q includes 512 K

The GMX Micro-20 single-board computer.

bytes of RAM and a 1.2-
megabyte floppy-disk drive;
the ATP-8-Q20 has 51 2 K
bytes of RAM. a 1.2-mega-
byte floppy-disk drive, a
20-megabyte hard disk with
an 83-millisecond access
time, and an AT-compatible
hard-disk controller. Both
models have a built-in
floppy-disk controller, a
parallel port, an RS-232C
serial port, and a socket for
an 80287 floating-point
math coprocessor. There are
three AT-compatible expan-
sion slots and two XT-
compatible slots.

A 9-inch green-phosphor,
nonglare screen is built into
the system. It has a 640- by
400-pixel graphics resolution
and a 16 by 13 dot-matrix
character font in a 16 by 16
dot-matrix cell. Both the
ATP-8-Q and ATP-8-Q20 in-
clude a color/monochrome
video graphics card, so you
can add a color monitor,
and an AT-style detachable
keyboard with an XT
interface.

The Corona ATP is 18.8 by
9.6 by 19.8 inches and

comes with MS-DOS 3.1 and
GW-BAS1C 3.1. The ATP-8-Q
costs $4286. while the
ATP-8-Q20 is $5595. Contact
Corona Data Systems Inc..
275 East Hillcrest Dr.. Thou-
sand Oaks. CA 91360. (805)
495-5800.
Inquiry 566.

IBM Compatibles
from Osborne

Osborne Computer Cor-
poration has intro-
duced three personal com-
puters: the Osborne 2000
PC-Kit. the Osborne 2100.
and the Osborne AT. The
Osborne 2000 PC-Kit in-
cludes an IBM PC-com-
patible motherboard, a
desktop PC-style case, a
power supply, and a key-
board. The motherboard has
a 4.77-MHz Intel 8088
microprocessor. 64K bytes
of RAM. a serial port, and a
floppy-disk controller. The
system costs $699. Floppy-

disk drives, memory up-
grades, video boards, and
microprocessor upgrades
are available separately.

The Osborne 2100 is an
IBM PC XT-compatible com-
puter based on a 4.77-MHz
8088. It has 2 56K bytes of
RAM, built-in parallel and
serial ports, and five expan-
sion slots. One of those
slots is occupied by a multi-
output color-graphics card
that operates with RGB.
composite, or monochrome
monitors. With two 360K-
byte 5 /4-inch floppy-disk
drives, the system costs
$1695; with a 10-megabyte
hard disk, it's $2395. A NEC
V20 CP/M emulator package
runs with both the Osborne
2000 PC-Kit and the
Osborne 2100: the package
includes a NEC V20 CPU
chip that replaces the stan-
dard 8088 and a software
CP/M emulator that lets you
run CP/M 2.2 while in MS-
DOS, so you can run most
CP/M-80 software. The V20
emulator package costs $99.

The Osborne AT is an IBM
[continued]

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 395

WHAT'S NEW

NEW S Y STEMS

PC AT-compatible personal
computer that comes with
your choice of a 6- or
8-MHz Intel 80286 micropro-
cessor. The system has 512 K
bytes of RAM expandable
to I megabyte on the
motherboard, a serial and a
parallel port, seven AT-
compatible slots, three PC-
compatible slots, and a real-
time clock. It also has a

1.2 -mega byte 5 14-inch
floppy-disk drive and a key-
board. The Osborne AT is
bundled with MS-DOS 3.1
and costs $2995. With a
20-megabyte hard disk, it
costs $4295. For more infor-
mation, contact Osborne
Computer Corp.. 42680
Christy St.. Fremont. CA
94538, (415) 490-6885.
Inquiry 567.

Victor Announces
80286 Machine

The Victor V286 is an
80286-based IBM PC
AT-compatible computer.
The base model, with one
1.2-megabyte floppy drive,
512K bytes of RAM. one
parallel and two serial ports.
MS-DOS 3.1. and GW-BAS1C.
retails at an introductory

price of $1995. Adding a
20-megabyte hard disk
brings the system price up
to $2995. Neither system in-
cludes a monitor or a video
controller.

For further information,
contact Victor 'Technologies
Inc., 380 El Pueblo Rd..
Scotts Valley, CA 95066.
1408) 438-6680.
Inquiry 568.

PERIPHERALS

Modems
from Kyocera

Kyocera International has
introduced the 1200S
stand-alone and the 1200D
plug-in card 1200-bps mo-
dems for the IBM PC, XT.
AT. and compatible personal
computers. Both have auto-
dial, auto-answer, dial-
tone/busy-tone detection
capability, and the ability to
redial a busy number up to
nine times.

The modems come with
Microsoft Corporation's Ac-
cess, a communications soft-
ware package that uses the
X.PC protocol, which lets
you connect up to 15 chan-
nels through one telephone
line. Access has built-in in-
terfaces for several informa-
tion services, including Dow
Jones News/Retrieval, Com-
puServe, and NewsNet. It
also lets you have up to
eight working windows on
your screen at any time.

The Kyocera 1200S stand-
alone unit with Access, an
RJ-11 telephone cable, an
RS-232C cable, and an AC
adapter costs $665. The
Kyocera 1200D plug-in card
comes with Access and an
RI-11 cable for $495. The
modems are also available

without software; the I200S
is $495 and the 1200D is
$345. An acoustic coupler
costs $7 5. The prices listed
include a manual and a two-
year limited warranty. Con-
tact Kyocera International
Inc.. 8611 Balboa Ave.. San
Diego, C A 92123. (800)
235-1222.
Inquiry 569.

Tools

for Microcomputers

Microcomputer Acces-
sories is offering the
PC Tool Kit. a collection of
1 1 tools designed for per-
sonal computer repair and
maintenance. The kit in-
cludes a '/4-inch nut driver
with a 3 /2-inch handle, a
3 /i6-inch nut driver with a
3 /2-inch handle, a number 1
Phillips screwdriver with a
3-inch handle, a number
Phillips screwdriver with a
2-inch handle, a 3 /6-inch flat
screwdriver with a 3-inch
handle, a / 8 -inch flat screw-
driver with a 2-inch handle,
a T15 Torx driver with a
3-inch handle (for Compaq
computers), a pair of
4 3 /4-inch tweezers, a 5-inch
3-prong part retriever and
extracter, an 1C inserter/ex-
tracter, and an extra parts
tube.

The kit comes in a black
vinyl case and costs $29.95.
Contact Microcomputer Ac-

cessories Inc., 5721 Bucking-
ham Parkway. POB 3725.
Culver City. CA 90231. (213)
641-1800.
Inquiry 570.

Double-Sided
External Drive
for Macintosh

Haba Systems introduced
the HabaDisk 800. an
external dual-sided 800K-
byte floppy-disk drive for
the Macintosh. It costs
$599.95. For more informa-
tion, contact Haba Systems
Inc.. 6711 Valjean Ave., Van
Nuys. CA 91406. (818)
901-8828.
Inquiry 571.

Compact Disk
Storage System

Tecmar Inc.'s CD Massfile
is a CD-ROM drive for
the DEC Rainbow. IBM PC.
and compatible personal
computers. The drive reads
disks using the Sony-Phillips
physical standard, which
means that up to 550 mega-
bytes of information can be
stored on and retrieved
from a single 4.72-inch com-
pact disk. CD Massfile's
average access time is 1.5

seconds with an error rate
of 1 bit per 10' 2 .

You can connect one or
two CD Massfiles to a com-
puter using one controller
card. The CD Massfile costs
$1695; the controller card
costs $295. For more infor-
mation, contact lecmar Inc.,
622 5 Cochran Rd., Solon,
OH 44139. (216) 349-0600.
Inquiry 572.

IBM Disk Drive
for DEC Computers

Suitable Solutions'
1DRIVE is an external
floppy-disk drive for the
DEC Rainbow that lets the
machine read and write IBM
PC- and XT-compatible disks.
Using this 48-tpi double-
sided disk drive, Rainbow
owners can use and pro-
duce IBM-format 8- or
9-sector. single- or double-
sided disks without refor-
matting or transferring files.
The IDRIVE uses the Rain-
bow's C and D drive floppy-
disk controller slot; it will
run in conjuction with a
hard disk. Installation of the
IDRIVE requires MS-DOS
version 2.05 or higher. The
drive costs $395. Contact
Suitable Solutions. 467
Saratoga Ave.. Suite 319.
San lose. CA 95129. (408)
72 5-8944.
Inquiry 573.

(continued)

396 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

Announcing a

radical new idea in

PC-AT programming:

FREEDOM

Alsys Ada Compiler for the 80286 Defeats the Tyranny of 640K DOS;
Liberates the Full 16MB Memory Capability of the Processor

The 80286 is a powerful chip. It can directly address up
to 16 megabytes of memory. But unfortunately, you
can't. DOS won't let you. And the compilers for what-
ever language you are currently using won't let you.

Until now.

Alsys has developed a new Ada compiler for the
IBM PC-AT. Ada, of course, is the language mandated
by the DoD for critical applications. Many believe it will
be the dominant language for the rest of the eighties
and nineties.

But leave aside Ada's virtues as a highly maintain-
able, portable, readable, software engineered language.
Leave aside its acceptance and sponsorship by DoD,
NASA, NATO, the FAA and large numbers of com-
mercial users. Forget (if you can) the $12 billion forecast
in just DoD Ada sales through 1989.

Think only of a million plus lines of code running on
a PC-AT! And think of the code executing faster than
Cor Pascal!

Think of the programs you could write if you could
address 16 megabytes! !

It's like moving your AT from primitive to profes-
sional, roller skates to Rolls Royce. It lets you and your
AT do everything you were meant to do.

The new Alsys Ada compiler, 300,000 lines of Ada
code and self -compiled (with only 3 megabytes of mem-
ory!), also provides complete memory protection. An
incorrect program affects no areas of memory except
those allocated to the program. In particular, the oper-
ating system cannot be destroyed. And it does this,
under control of DOS, without any changes to DOS of
any kind!

No more Alt-Ctrl-Del restarts after a bug
damages DOS!

©Ada is a registered trademark of the U.S. Government (AJPO).
Inquiry 386

Alsys is the premier Ada company in the world .
France, U.S., U.K. And is about to become the premier
AT compiler company in the world, too. For any lan-
guage. For serious programmers frustrated by DOS.

Usethe coupon now. Or Call. Freedom is a precious
thing.

Alsys, Inc. • 1432 Main Street
Waltham, MA 02154 -U.S.A.
Phone; (617) 890-0030 • Telex: 948536

Alsys, Ltd. • Partridge Hse. Newton Road
Henley-on-Thames • Oxon RG91 EN, England
Phone; (0491) 579090 • Telex: 846508

Alsys, S.A. • 29, Avenue de Versailles
78170 La Celie St. Cloud • France
Phone: (3)918.12.44 • Telex: 697569

ALSYS, INC.,

1432 Main Street,
Waltham, MA 02154

Tell me more about a million lines

of code on an AT. Send me literature.

Call me. Tell me about prices, delivery,

warranties, support.
Name_

Company _
Address

. State .

. Zip.

WHAT'S NEW

■

ADD-INS

Half-Card 2400-bps
Modem

OmniTel's Encore
2400HB is a 2400-bps
internal modem for the IBM
PC and compatible personal
computers. This 5- by 4-inch
short-card modem uses the
AT command set and is fully
compatible with the Hayes
Smartmodem I200B and
2400 internal modems, the
V.22 bis standard, and the
Bell 212A/103 standard. It
has automatic dial and
answer capabilities, call pro-
gress reporting, and auto-
matic speed selection and
fallback.

The Encore 2400HB will
run at 300 bps. 1200 bps. or
2400 bps. It has its own
microprocessor, and COM
ports 1 through 4 are ad-
dressable. With a two-year
warranty and the Relay com-
munications software
package, the Encore 2400HB
costs $695. Contact OmniTel
Inc., 3090 Oakmead Village
Dr.. Santa Clara. CA 95051.
(408) 986-8236.
Inquiry 574.

8086 Powers
Speed-up Card

AST Research's FastPak is
an IBM PC and PC XT
add-in card based on a
9.54-MHz Intel 8086 micro-
processor. Designed to
speed up a standard 8088-
based PC. the FastPak in-
cludes the new generation
of Expanded Memory Speci-
fication software and pro-
vides a socket for an Intel

8087 numeric coprocessor.
The board has an 8K-byte

"two-set" cache that creates
two buffers to hold portions
of active applications pro-
grams. When a block of
code is called, the cache

AST's FastPak speed-up card.

system checks to see if it is
in one of the buffers, there-
by reducing the number of
times the 8086 has to read
code or data from the PC
system memory.

FastPak has a switch that
lets you move between
FastPak 8086 operation and
standard 8088 mode. This
insures compatibility with
applications software that
was designed specifically for
the 8088's cycle rate.

FastPak costs $495. For
more information, contact
AST Research Inc.. 2121
Alton Ave. Irvine. CA 92714.
(714) 863-1333.
Inquiry 575.

68020 Single-Board
Computer Plugs
into IBM PC

The IS-68020PC from In-
telligent Software is a
single-board computer that
you can plug into an IBM
PC or AT slot. The board is
based on a Motorola 68020
microprocessor running at
16.7 MHz. It has half a
megabyte of RAM and up
to 64K bytes of ROM with

2 5 I/O lines and two RS-
232C ports. A socket pro-
vides for an optional 68881
floating-point coprocessor.

The system works either as
a direct plug-in board or
through a serial link from an
MS-DOS host computer. It
has debugging tools that
work in conjuction with the
host PC to provide an
evaluation or applications
development system. The
board works with the Quelo
cross-assembler, the Lattice
C cross-compiler package,
and other development utili-
ties. Files are stored on the
host computer's drives.

The IS-68020PC has a pro-
cessor bus interface with all
control signals usable, hard-
ware bus-error handling, in-
terrupt acknowledge and
auto- vectoring support, and
1 2 8-byte FIFO for PC com-
munication or buffered I/O
in the single-board con-
figuration. It costs $3900.
Contact Intelligent Software
Inc.. POB 533. Old Green-
wich. CT 06870. (203)
359-5763.
Inquiry 576.

SCSI Controller
Interface Card

CMS Inc.'s host adapter
card provides an inter-
face between an IBM PC XT.
PC AT. or compatible personal
computer and up to two
disk controllers by using the
SCSI (small computer system
interface) protocol. The 5-
by 3.9-inch card uses one
IBM PC I/O slot and inter-
faces to the host computer
via a gold-plated edge con-
nector. It connects to inter-
nal drives through a 50-pin
header strip or to external
SCSI cable through a 2 5-pin
D-subminiature connector.

The host adapter uses
8-bit' memory-mapped I/O to
communicate with the host
and the SCSI protocols to
communicate with the SCSI
controllers. It has nonvolatile
static RAM. EEPROM. and
EPROM to let the host com-
puter detect and pass infor-
mation to and from an SCSI
controller. The card costs
$99. Contact CMS Inc..
401-B West Dyer Rd.. Santa
Ana. CA 92707. (714)
549-9111.
Inquiry 577.

[continued)

398 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

The Right Products

At Bondwell, we sell computers to suit
practically any application. We offer compact
briefcase-size machines for the executive on the
go. Transportables for the occasional traveller.
And desktop systems for the sedentary office
worker. In fact, no matter what you do, there's
a Bondwell computer to help you do it.

The Right Prices

One of the things that makes Bondwell products
so attractive is the price. Witness the Bondwell
2. The award-winning portable that U.S.A.
Today called "the best combination of features
and price" in the portable computer market. But
the saving doesn't stop there. Every Bondwell
product is designed to provide the best features
for the money.

The Right Places

Our products are now available in every major
center in the world. So no matter where you live
you can enjoy the sheer pleasure of owning a
Bondwell computer.

Call or visit your local dealer today.

Bonduu

TM

EI

Model 18

Bonduuell

TM

r. 3 fr

/ Model 2

Model 34

U.S.A. Office: 3300 Seldon Court, Fremont, Calif. Worldwide Network: Austria • Australia

94539, U.S.A. Tel: (415) 490-4300-2
Telefax: (415) 490-5897 Tlx.: 650-241-4841

Inquiry 374

> Belgium • Chile •"Denmark • Finland • Hong Kong
1 Israel • Italy • Ireland • Liechtenstein • Luxemburg
1 Netherlands • Norway • New Zealand • Malta
1 Pakistan • Singapore • South Africa • Spain

• Saudi Arabia • Sweden • Switzerland • Turkey

• U.A.E.. • U.K. • U.S.A. • West Germany

The specifications and appearance are subject to change due to improvement or
modification of product.

Bondwell is a trademark of Bondwell International Ltd.

WHAT'S NEW

SOFTWARE

IBM PC

MIDI Modules
for the IBM PC

Sight & Sound's MIDI
Ensemble lets you use
an IBM PC and MIDI equip-
ment to record and refine
music performances. The
package has three main
modules: Recorder, Event
Editor, and Phrase Editor.

Recorder lets you record
and overdub tracks as if
using a multitrack tape
machine; 2 55 tracks are
available. This module pro-
vides automated punch-in
and punch-out. phrase
markers, a programmable
metronome, timing and
tempo controls, and inter-
faces to external controllers.

After recording, you can
use Event Editor to display
the music and insert,
remove, or change notes.
The entire 88-note range of
pitch can be displayed on
the screen. Your selected
note or chord is shown on a
set of staff lines on the left
side of the screen or pic-
tured on an 88-note key-
board at the bottom of the
screen.

With the Phrase Editor,
you can specify the begin-
ning and end points of
music segments and then
move, copy, delete, combine,
and modify segments.
Phrases can be any length,
from an entire track to a
part of a measure. This
module can automatically
correct timing errors.

Hardware requirements are
an IBM PC or compatible
with at least 2 56K bytes of
memory and DOS 2.0 or
later, a standard color or
monochrome graphics card
(color card required for the
Event Editor), a Roland DG
MPU-40I processing unit,
and a Roland DG MIF-IBM
interface card. MIDI Ensem-
ble costs $495. Contact
Sight & Sound Music Soft-

ware Inc., 3200 South 166th
St.. New Berlin. WI 53151.
(414) 784-5850.
Inquiry 578.

Regression Modeling

Goodness-of-Fit is an in-
teractive modeling
package containing pro-
cedures for simple linear
and nonlinear regression,
stepwise multiple regression,
probit regression, principal
components analysis, and
multicollinearity diagnostics.

You use the program's
command processor to per-
form transformations and
design your analysis. It's
similar to a word processor
but has features intended to
facilitate regression pro-
cedures. A data manager
lets you enter, edit, print,
merge, and reformat data
files, which are stored in se-
quential ASCII format.

Iransformations can be
performed using standard
algebraic equations. The
program is capable of
trigonometric functions, dif-
ferencing, lagging, sorting,
and creating dummy vari-
ables.

Goodness-of-Fit runs on an
IBM PC. XT. or AT with 128K
bytes and two disk drives. It
lists for $195. Contact
Walonick Associates, 6500
Nicollet Ave. S. Minneapolis.
MN 55423, (800) 328-4907;
in Minnesota or Canada,
(612) 866-9022.
Inquiry 579.

Simulation Language

TurboSim is a language
that lets you run large
discrete-event simulations on
an IBM Personal Computer.
Applications include the
modeling of manufacturing,
distribution, health-care, and
information systems.

The program uses Borland
International's Turbo Pascal

to compile source code into
machine-language instruc-
tions. 'TurboSim automatical-
ly generates a final report.
You can have it provide ad-
ditional statistics, histograms,
and plots, and it can run
multiple simulations in an
unattended mode.

To use the software, you
need Turbo Pascal and an
IBM PC with at least 64K
bytes of memory. TurboSim
sells for $49.95. comes on
an unprotected disk, and in-
cludes source code, sample
programs, and a manual.
Contact Micro Simulation,
37 William I. Heights. Fra-
mingham. MA 01701. (617)
875-6098.
Inquiry 580.

Circuit Analysis
with Single-Element
Response

An automated circuit-
analysis program for
the IBM PC. XT AT and
compatibles. mCAP imple-
ments both nodal and mesh
analysis methods in finding
solutions to network equa-
tions. You have to assign
only the node voltages or
mesh currents for the net-
work solution. The program
then prompts for all entries,
which are made from the
keyboard, by graphically
displaying the circuit
elements on the monitor.

Networks can contain
resistors, capacitors, induc-
tors, independent and
dependent voltage and cur-
rent sources, operational
amplifiers, and linear and
ideal transformers. Among
mCAP's other features are
frequency response, power
and power factor correction,
delta-wye transformations,
and complex arithmetic for
AC analysis. Single-element
response for DC analysis
lets you analyze the circuit

response as one element in
the array is allowed to vary.
The software costs $395: a
demo disk is $15. For more
information, contact Techni-
Soft Inc.. POB 98017. Dept.
112. Baton Rouge. LA
70898. (504) 767-4798.
Inquiry 581.

MIT's UnkelScope

Unkel Software's Unkel-
Scope is a laboratory
tool developed at MIT's
Department of Mechanical
Engineering. It's a data-ac-
quisition, display, process-
ing! and control package
designed to save time in the
lab by eliminating program-
ming activities.

Level 1 of the software
presents a menu-driven in-
terface to take and display
data in real time and store it
for later analysis. Level 2
(used by students involved
in MIT's Project Athena)
adds experiment controls,
process controllers, digital
filtering, FFT-related func-
tions, calibration, conversion,
and algebraic operations.

The UnkelScope runs on
the IBM PC series or com-
patible machines with a
data-acquisition board from
MetraByte. Tecmar, Data
Translation, or IBM. It needs
DOS 2.0 or later and at
least 2 56K bytes of memory.
The software works with an
IBM graphics adapter or
equivalent and the Hercules
graphics card.

Level I sells for $32 5, and
Level 2 for $495. Univer-
sities can get an unsup-
ported copy of Level 2 for
$100. Multiple-copy licenses
and site licenses are avail-
able. A demo disk is free
and requires no data-ac-
quisition board. Contact
Unkel Software Inc.. 62
Bridge St.. Lexington. MA
02173. (617) 861-0181.
Inquiry 582.

[continued]

400 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1986

It's the best thing since 1-2-3.

We asked current 1-2-3® users how
to get more out of 1-2-3.

And you told us.

Introducing 1-2-3 Release 2 from
Lotus.®

New 1-2-3 is more powerful and a
lot more versatile.

You wanted to handle larger jobs
with 1-2-3 . Now you can. The new
1-2-3 worksheet has been expanded
to 8 192 rows - 4 times its original size.
And your worksheet is actually more
flexible because advanced memory
management allocates memory more
efficiently and allows data to be stored
anywhere on the worksheet. When
used with new expanded memory
boards, new 1-2-3 can address mem-
ory beyond 640K.

New 1-2-3 is designed to support
the Intel® 8087/80287 math coproces-
sors so you can now do many calcula-
tions faster. We've even added some
features that make it possible to do
things like regression analysis, string
functions and string arithmetic. And
new 1-2-3 comes with 40 new macro
commands so you can work more
efficiently and a lot more productively.

Now you can start 1-2-3 directly off
a hard disk without putting a system
disk in the floppy disk drive.

But we still kept things simple.

In many respects,new 1-2-3 isn't
any different from the original. You
wanted us to keep things simple and
we did. If you're already familiar with
1-2-3, you're ready to use new 1-2-3.

You don't have to retrain. And new
1-2-3 can read and process existing
1-2-3 files so that virtually all appli-
cations already developed can easily
be used.

It's even easy to upgrade to
new 1-2-3.

If you're a registered 1-2-3 user and
want to upgrade to new 1-2-3 , you'll
find all the details in a mailing from
Lotus. If you haven't registered yet,
complete and send in your Warranty
Registration Card or call 1-800-
TRADEUP* so we can send you the
mailing.

The cost of the Upgrade product
is $150. You are eligible for a free
upgrade if you purchased 1-2-3
Release 1A on or after April 24, 1985.

And for everyone who upgrades,
there's also a rebate offer of $40 on the
Intel Above™ Board, the first expanded
memory board certified by Lotus.

We think you'll find new 1-2-3 the
best thing since, well, 1-2-3.

*ln Canada call 1-800-447-4700.

Suggested retail priceofnew 1-2-3 is$495. 1-2-3 Release 2requires
25 6K of memory. The minimum memory requirement for 1-2-3 Release
lAisl92K.

Lotus*

) 1 985, Lotus Development Corporation. Lotus and I -2-3 are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. Intel is a registered trademark and Above is a trademark of Intel Corporation.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 401

WHAT'S NEW

S O F TWA RE § A PPLE

Programmable Mac
Database Compatible
with dBASE III

A programmable database
compatible with dBASE
III, dMac III lets you transfer
applications written in
dBASE to the 512K-byte
Macintosh. The product has
a programming language
that lets you create dBASE-
type applications. A built-in
editor and a professional
programming editor let you
customize your programs
and create your own data-
bases.

The package has an index
file that's about 70 percent
smaller than in dBASE III

and utilizes 80 percent of
the index memory capacity.
There are as many as 100
different indexes for files.
Maximum database size is
32 megabytes. You can
bring up as many as 2000
memory variables and 2000
fields per record; maximum
record size is 32K bytes. Up
to 32 files can be open
simultaneously.

The program requires
either two floppy-disk drives
or a floppy and a hard disk.
Retail price for dMac III is
$495. The software was de-
veloped by Format Software
GmbH of Cologne, West
Germany, and is available
from Datalogica, Matrix

Plaza, 1964 Westwood Blvd..
Los Angeles, CA 90025,
(213) 475-0582.
Inquiry 583.

Symbolic Math

Brainpower's PowerMath
for the Macintosh solves
algebra and differential
calculus problems, computes
indefinite and definite in-
tegrals, solves simultaneous
linear and nonlinear equa-
tions, computes laylor
series, and performs tran-
scendental and logarithmic
functions. You can also use
it to solve matrix algebra
problems, compute fac-

torials, and plot expressions.

After you type in the
problem and select Evaluate,
the software calculates the
result. You can save for-
mulas and equations as well
as the answers from any
operation. All problems can
be used repeatedly with dif-
ferent variable values.

PowerMath is unprotected
and sells for $99.95. Al-
though simple problems can
be handled on the 128K-
byte Mac, 512K bytes are
recommended. Contact
Brainpower Inc., 24009 Ven-
tura Blvd., Suite 250,
Calabasas, CA 91302, (818)
884-6911.
Inquiry 584.

S O F TWA RE « O T H E R CO M P U T E R

Modula-2, Pascal
for Atari 520ST

TDI has developed two
packages for the Atari
520ST: a Modula-2 compiler
and UCSD Pascal.

TDI Modula-2/ST is ac-
cessible from the GEM inter-
face and comes with its own
screen editor linked to the
compiler. It supports the full
GEM interface. Every piece
of software written with this
Modula-2 is a module and is
split into two parts: a defini-
tion and an implementation.
The definition describes
exactly what the module
does, which variables and
procedures it is importing,
and what it is exporting. Im-
plementations of modules
can be developed, de-
bugged, and tested. They
then become "software
chips" that you can use
within any software system.

TDI Modula-2/ST costs
£195.

UCSD Pascal for the Atari
comes with the p-System
operating system, which con-
tains the UCSD screen

editor, file manager, and
disk-recovery utilities. The
compiler is the latest version
from SofTech Microsystems
and incorporates the key
features of the language as
defined by Niklaus Wirth,
with extensions designed for
systems developers and soft-
ware writers. Among the
features are multiple code
pools, program segmenta-
tion, facilities for building in
concurrency, and 36-digit
packed BCD arithmetic im-
plemented by long integers.
Contact TDI Software Ltd.,
29 Alma Vale Rd.. Bristol
BS8 2HL, England, tele-
phone: 0272 742796; telex:
449273 TDIUK.
Inquiry 585.

Technical BASIC

TransEra's TBASIC is a
technically oriented
BASIC for CAD, scientific,
and engineering applica-
tions, with an emphasis on
graphics and instrument
control. It incorporates GPIB
syntax and is designed to
facilitate adaptation of soft-
ware written for Hewlett-
Packard and Tektronix engi-
neering computers to the PC
environment. The language
runs under MS-DOS, PC-
DOS, CP/M, and UNIX.

TBASIC's instruction set
conforms to the ANSI pro-
posed standard. Some of
the features are cross-refer-
ence facilities for listing

WHERE DO NEW PRODUCT ITEMS COME FROM?
The new products listed in this section of BYTE are chosen from the thousands
of press releases, letters, and telephone calls we receive each month from
manufacturers, distributors, designers, and readers. The basic criteria for selection
for publication are: [a) does a product match our readers' interests? and (b)
is it new or is it simply a reintroduction of an old item? Because of the volume
of submissions we must sort through every month, the items we publish are
based on vendors' statements and are not individually verified. \f you want
your product to be considered for publication (at no charge), send full infor-
mation about it, including its price and an address and telephone number
where a reader can get further information, to New Products Editor. BYTE,
70 Main St.. Peterborough. NH 03458.

variables and referenced line
numbers, a command for
renaming program variables,
MOVE and COPY com-
mands designed to assign
new line numbers intelligent-
ly, and syntax checking per-
formed as lines are entered.

The language has a full set
of binary, scalar, array,
matrix, and scientific math
functions as well as trig,
transcendental, and other
operations using both in-
teger and double-precision
floating-point data types. It
also supports the 8087
coprocessor. Special-
purpose array functions per-
form area, circumference,
centroid, and other calcula-
tions for polygons.

TBASIC costs $495 for MS-
DOS, PC-DOS, and CP/M; for
most UNIX machines, it
costs $795. Contact IransEra
Corp., 3707 North Canyon
Rd., Provo, UT 84604, (801)
224-6550.
Inquiry 586.

402 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

10MHz8086 in%/rTJ ono „ „

processorwith 10MHz8087math

full w-bit w ;£ r ? cess ,7

* datapath (optional)

< N £rA %. NX .J

Comes standard'

with 512K RAM,

expandable to 640 K

Print spooling,

RAM disk and disk

caching software included

Normal IBM speed
emulation switch

300% performance
increase

Compatible with
IBM Basica programs

That's right, guaranteed
performance. The Univation
Turbocharger will triple the pro-
cessing speed of your IBM PC,
PC/XT, or 100% compatible.

Just think, the data process-
ing speed and performance of a
PC/AT without the expense.
Plug it in, and your PC will do
everything it did before, only
300% faster.

Best of all, the Univation
Turbocharger works with all

your existing PC software
automatically. Nothing to lear
nothing to change. Speed spreac
sheets, databases, graphics, even
IBM Basica programs. The Turbo-
charger will spark each and every
program you use.

To ensure complete reliability,
our Turbocharger is extensively
tested. It's available for immediate
delivery. And, best of all, it's
guaranteed. Guaranteed to
work exactly as promised

provide all
processing power
you'll ever need.
So why not make your life a
little easier and do your work a
lot quicker with the Univation
Turbocharger.

See it at your local computer
dealer today. For the dealer in
your area call: (408)745-0180.

Dealer and distributor inquires invited.

IBM PC. PC/XT and PC/AT are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp.
Inquiry 371

UNIVATION

Your Expansion Company

1037 North Fair Oaks Ave.
Sunnyvale, C A 94089
(408) 745-0180

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 403

Steve's Basic 52 Computer/Controller — $239.00

Designer Boards Without Designer Prices

hardware from Bytes popular Garcia column can be designed
into your applications at surprisingly low cost.

TM

Steve's a maverick designer
who still believes in the
value of a dollar — yours and
his. And every board that Steve's
designed for his
Byte articles
over the past
nine years has
had to pass the
same tough test
that you apply:
perf o rmance
and reliability at the lowest pos-
ible price.

Says he, "A lot of people have tried
to brainwash OEMs into thinking that
they have to pay absurd prices for

404 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

industrial quality boards. They charge
what the traffic will bear. I don't
like seeing anybody get ripped off
so I design less expensive alternatives.
Every time I plan a board I start by
asking myself, 'How much would I
want to pay for this if I were buy-
ing it?' "

Micromint was formed to sup-
port reader demand for Steve's
boards and we carry on his tough
standards. We also add the final
ingredients that OEMs look for—
fast delivery and painstaking,
professional service.

Many of our products originally
appeared as feature articles

in Byte. They include system con-
trollers, data acquisition, voice
synthesis/ recognition boards,
computer systems, power sup-
plies, and environmental control
and security systems. So call
1-800-635-3355 now for free
brochures . . . and ask about
our OEM pricing.

Micromint Inc. 25 Terrace Dr.
Vernon, CT 06066 Telex: 64333 1

-The Buyer's Mart-

A Directory of Products and Services

THE BUYER'S MART is a monthly advertising section which enables readers
to easily locate suppliers by product category. As a unique feature, each
BUYER'S MART ad includes a Reader Service number to assist interested
readers in requesting information from participating advertisers.

RATES: 1x-$375 3x-$350 6x-$325
Prepayment must accompany each insertion.

AD FORMAT: Each ad will be designed and typeset by BYTE. Advertisers must

furnish typewritten copy. Ads can include headline (23 characters maximum),
descriptive text (250 characters maximum), plus company name, address and
telephone number. Do not send logos or camera-ready artwork.

DEADLINE: Ad copy is due 2 months prior to issue date. For example: June
issue closes on April 1. Send your copy and payment to THE BUYER'S MART,
BYTE magazine, 70 Main Street, Peterborough, NH 03458. For more informa-
tion call Karen Burgess at BYTE 603-924-9281.

ACCESSORIES

ACCESSORIES

BOOKS /DISKS /VIDEOS

SOFTWARE PACKAGING, DISKS

Cloth binders & slips like IBM's. Vinyl binders, boxes, and
folders-many sizes. Disk pages, envelopes, & labels. Low
qly. imprinting. Bulk & branded disks. Much More! Low
prices. Fast service. Call or write fa FREE CATALOG.
Anthropomorphic Systems Limited
376-B East St. Charles Road
Lombard, IL 60148

1-800-DEAL-NOW (312) 629-5160

FREE CATALOG

Outstanding prices on computer accessories for
your computer and workstation. Our catalog
features a wide selection of quality products to
meet all your accessory needs. Call orwritetoday
to receive your free catalog.

LINTEK COMPUTER ACCESSORIES

POB 8056, Grand Rapids, Ml 49508
(616) 241-4040

• HARD DISK MADE EASY •

Every Hard Disk Owner Needs

EASYBRIEF FOR COMPUTERS WITH

A HARD DISK

A How-To Book
$10 Post Pd. Send Ck or M.O.

To: The EASYKEY Co.
Bx. 1758, Murphys, CA 95247

Inquiry 655

Inquiry 708.

Inquiry 689.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

PERIPHERAL SWITCHES

2 Position Serial $39.95

2 Position Parallel $59.95

Common Cable Included

Various Connector Options

Write or call for free brochure

SYNTAX ENGINEERING

Rte. 3 Box 344, Escondido, CA 92025
(619) 741-4000

DATA CABLES & PARTS

EIA RS232-C Data Cables - standard, extended
distance. Teflon Assemblies. Also Centronics
(parallel), Coaxial (RG59U, RG62A/U, Dual Wang,
Twin-axial), Ethernet, Ribbon, IBM. DEC Compati-
ble cables, AB switches, connector parts, bulk cable;
tools & hardware (wall plates). Send for Catalog.

Communication Cable Co.

POB 600-B, Wayne, PA 19087
215-644-1900

VIDEO STORES

We need ambitious dealers in all U.S. states
and Canada to market a powerful system to
computerize video tape rental stores.

WINCHESTER DATA
PRODUCTS INC.

3301-Executive Drive., #204, Raleigh, N.C. 27609
(919) 872-0995

Inquiry 752

Inquiry 667

DYSAN DISKS

Free Shipping & Handling

Boxes 5'/i" DSDD (104/2D) 51V 1 IBM AT (UHR II)

1 $24.90 each $44.90 each

2 $23.90 each $43.90 each
70 $22.90 each $42.90 each
20 $20.90 each $40.90 each

Large Orders call for quote

WGGB

316 North Owen Street Mount Prospect. IL 60056

312-392-2621

DATA SWITCHES

Stop recabling forever, with our Serial or Parallel AB
or X Data Switches. Two printers can share one com-
puter or two computers can share one printer or plot-
ter, or modem, or monitor, or etc. Prices start as low
as $42.00. For more details, see our ad in January
and March issues. To increase your systems pro-
ductivity today, call: 602-623-5716

Via West, Inc.

534 N. Stone Ave.. Tucson. AZ 85705

Do you know businesses or people that buy IBM
hardware, software, accessories and supplies? If so.
you could make commissions just for recommending
our national firm. Full or part-time positions available.
We discount most major brand name products
20-50%, which makes our prices most appealing.
Plus you get $ for the sale. Call or write for more info.

WGGB

316 North Owen Street Mount Prospect, IL 60056
312-392-2621

Inquiry 753

Inquiry 762

BOOKS /DISKS /VIDEOS

COMMUNICATIONS

BUNK FUNCTION KEY TEMPLATES

Write convenient commands next to your function keys on re-
versible plastic templates. Styles to fit IBM-PC, Compatibles.
HP-150, Keytronics 5151, and others, Custom also available.
$4.95 Pkg. of 3 (Plus $1 s&h)
1-800-231-5413
In CA 1-800-523-5441
Free catalog of other helpful products available by
circling number below on inquiry card.

ATTENTION PROGRAMMERS!!

Programmers' Handbook of
Computer Printer Commands Is a must!

Programming Codes lor 100's of Printers.

* 43 Manufacturers * Daisy & DMP

* 272 pgs. in Table Form

* Info: Code. Hex/Dec. Equiv.. and Description

* Dealer inquiries invited $39.95 (plus S&H)
TO ORDER CALL OR WRITE:

CARDINAL POINT INCORPORATED

P.O.Box 596, Ellettsville. IN 47429
(812) 876-7811 (M-F 9-5)

SMART ANSWERING MACHINE

SAM transforms your IBM PC into an intelligent phone
answering & real-voice messaging center. FEATURES:
999 personal messages, call screening, message for-
warding, timed or grouped message delivery, sortable
phonebook/autodialer, time/date log, voice prompted
remote access, AND MORE!! All hardware & software
included. Retail $295. VISA/MC.

DIALECTRON, INC.

2035 California St., Ste #17, Mountain View, CA 94040

(415) 960-3040

Inquiry 674

Inquiry 665

Inquiry 680

CONTRACTS

Self-Inking Printer Ribbon

For users of Okidata and other open spool ribbon
printers. Controlled Printout Devices are a new kind of
printing ribbon that re-ink themseWes, and will last 15
times longer than the ribbon you are now using. For
further information please call or write.

CONTROLLED PRINTOUT DEVICES, INC.

POB 869, Baldwin Rd., Arden, NC 28704
(704) 684-9044

• •WORDSTAR USERS* •

TRY THE NEW, DIFFERENT. UNIQUE APPROACH
TO LEARNING WORDSTAR,
introducing an instruction book that skips the
unnecessary and gets on with the substance of how
to use your program! A superior primer and a con-
cise reference in one manageable text!
CHEATBOOK FOR WORDSTAR
$10 Post Paid, Send check or M.O. to:
The EASYKEY Company, Bx 1758
Murphys, CA 95247

Inquiry 688

FOR ENTREPRENEURS

Legal contracts for hardware/software developers. Employee
agreement, non-disclosure form, contracts lor sale (hardware
and/or software), consulting, development hardware & software
maintenance, non-competition, project delivery & more.

$50 Waters Publishing $50

8235 Douglas - Suite 1000 -
Dallas, TX 75225
800-628-2828

FEBRUARY 1 986 • BYTE 405

The Buyer's Mart-

DISK CONVERSION

EDUCATION

HARDWARE

CONVERSION SERVICES

Convert any 9 track magnetic tape to or from over
500 formats including 3 1 /2", 5Va\ 8" disk formats &
word processors. Disk to disk conversions also
available. Call for more info. (312) 459-6010

Pivar Computing Services, Inc.

. . 47 W. Dundee Road . .
Wheeling, IL 60090

AD FOR CS PROGRAM

Would you like a computer science program that allows
undergraduates (yes even freshmen!) to actually work on
computer equipment and not just program it? We are seek-
ing 10- 15 students per year who are interested in a very in-
dividualized and highly demanding undergraduate program
in computer science. For further information,

Write: Stanley Zielinski

Academic Computer Center
New England College
Henniker, NH 03242

POWERLINE GREMLINS??
POWER FAILURES??

The MEIRICK STANDBY POWER SYSTEM

is the TOTAL SOLUTION to your

powerline problems.

240 watt system - $365; 400 watt system - $495;

800 watt system - $795

MEIRICK Inc., POWER SYSTEMS DIV.

Box 298, Frisco, CO 80443 303-668-3251

Inquiry 712.

ENTERTAINMENT

INCOMPATIBLE WORD PROCESSORS?

We convert to and from: XEROX, DEC, IBM,

LANIER, WANG, PC-DOS, CONVERGENT

TECHNOLOGY, WORDSTAR, MULTIMATE,

SAMNA ASCII, MICOM.

Also mostCP/M systems.

LOWEST PRICES

DATA CONVERSION INC.

6310 Caballero Blvd. • Buena Park, CA 90620

(714) 522-7762 (800) 824-4851 in CA.

"Chester is here at last!"

An intelligent Chinese checkers program that will
have your PC or compatible "think" while it tries to
outsmart you. Five skill levels, saves games, play
against Chester or a Iriend. Need PC colors and Dos
2. xx. Priced so you can afford it. $22.00 + $2.00
shipping. Indicate Dos format (360K, etc.)

A. I. SOFTWARE 512-928-2009

2200 Rogge Ln., Austin, TX 78723

REPLACEMENT IBM KEYBOARD

Switch selectable to operate with either the IBM AT
or PC/XT, the MAXI-SWITCH keyboard features full-
travel, full-surface keylops, \s low-profile and has ad-
justable support legs. Immediate delivery: $128 ea.
complete in enclosure with cable.

THE MAXI-SWITCH COMPANY

9697 E. River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55433
(612) 755-7660

HARDWARE

DISK AND TAPE CONVERSIONS

High quality conversion services for Dedicated Word
Processors, Mini and Microcomputers. Over 600 3Vz",
5V4'', and 8" formats. Also 800-1600BP1 tape. Includ
ed: Wang. NBI. CPT, DEC. Videx. Lanier. OS/6. Xerox,
IBM Sys/34/36/38/5520. Mac. Victor, TRS. Apple,
NSTAR, IBM PC/AT, HR and most of the other microcom-
puters. We can convert directly into word processing
soltware such as: DW3, WP. MS/WRD, WS. Samna, MM,
PFS, and many others,

DATA FORMATS, INC. (408) 972-1830

MATRIX CALCULATOR

Programmable calculator with 70+ matrix
opns, statistics, system of lin & nonlin & diff
eq'ns, numer. integral, 1-d optm. User pro-
gram'd tunc. $49.95 includes S&H, 100+ pg
manual, 1 yr. support. Same for 8087 ver. Visa,
MC accepted.

SoftTech Inc.

14640 LaBelle, Oak Park, Ml 48237
313-544-8544

EPROM/EEPROM PROG. $250

Programs 2716-27256, 25xx and 68764/66 eproms
via RS-232. Also 874x micros and 28xxA & 52Bxx
EEPROMs. Automatic baud rate select, built in help
menus, no personality modules!

16 BIT I/O MODULE $75
Low cost control via RS-232. Expands to 512!

INTELLITRONICS

P.O. Box 3263, Tustin, CA 92680
(714) 669-0614

Inquiry 722.

Inquiry 745.

Inquiry 703.

DOCUMENTATION

COMPUTER ASSEMBLY MANUALS

BIG BLUE SEED fa IBM" BUILDERS: parls list, place-
ment diagrams, instructions for assembling over 55 IBM-
compatible bare cards - $14,95.
APPLE SEED II for APPLE" BUILDERS: in the style of
the BIG BLUE SEED with instructions for assembling 70
Apple-compatible bare cards - $12.95.
BOTH ASSEMBLY MANUALS FOR $25.00

Nu Scope Associates

P.O. Box 790 • Lewiston NY • 14092

* WHILE THEY LAST *

Slightly used and guaranteed

Apple IIC - CPU only $550.00

CBM - MPS-801 printer $90.00.

PC/XT Clone, 256K, 20 meg. $1300.00

We buy, sell, trade Apple, IBM & CBM.

SHREVE SYSTEMS

845 Lark Ave., Shreveport, LA 71105
318-865-6743 4-8 p.m. C.S.T.

Inquiry 744.

IAM . . . In-Circuit Emulators

Real time full function In-Circuit Emulators for Design
Engineers. Load Hex Files, Assemb/e/D/sassemb/e,
Edit Memory, Set Constants, with Break and Print
Points. Stand alone operation or turns your Personal
Computer into a Development System. And at an
incredibly low Price . . . $498. Models Available Z80,
8085, 8088 and NSC800. For immediate response
Call (916) 961-8082

IAM

P.O. Box 2545, FairOaks, CA 95628

DUPLICATING SERVICES

WESTERN TRANSDATA, INC.

Why risk duplicating your important programs on your com-
puter, when our equipment is designed solely to duplicate disks
& verify their perfection 100%? Over 600 formats. 3W\ 5'A"
& 8". Plus serialization, copy protection, labeling, packaging,
shrink-wrapping and fast, personalized service.

WESTERN TRANSDATA, INC.

1701 E. Edinger Ave. A-4
Santa Ana, CA 92705
714/547-3383 (collect)

LOAD CELL INTERFACE $599

Connects weigh scales to any computer via serial
RS232, 423 or 422, several units individually ad-
dressable from single computer port. Directly program-
mable in Basic - Demo program included. High ac-
curacy 40.000 count. Options include NEMA-4. shunt
cal, 4 load cell summing.

SCALE-TRON INC.

P.O. Box 424, Lachine, Quebec, H8S 4C2
(514) 634-7032

BDS LASER PRINTER! — $2,559.00
COMPLETE WITH SOFTWARE!

8 Pages per Minute, 9 Type Fonts. (16 with optional
Cartridge). Down-Loadable (Design your own) Fonts,
Parallel (Centronics, IEEE-488) and Serial (RS-232C)
Interfaces. Landscaping (Graphics Intermixed with
Text). Magnification. Sideways Print, and Non-Volatile
Memory for Control Features.

HIGH TECHNOLOGY, INC.

9312 W. 92nd Ave., Westminster, CO 80020
(303) 431-7596 VISA and MASTERCARD Accepted!

Inquiry 760.

Inquiry 742.

DUPLICATION SOLUTIONS

We have the answer to your duplication needs,
no matter what the volume. We supply auto-
loaders, disks, and technical support. We pro-
vide copy protection, serialization, package
assembly, and distributive shipping.

MegaSoft

P.O. Box 1143, Freehold, NJ 07728
1-800-222-0490 201-462-7628 (in NJ)

Inquiry 711.

406 BYTE

1/2 IN. 9 TRACK COUPLER

READ and WRITE 1/2 in. magnetic tape with format-
ted 9 track drives. Runs all speeds and densities in
PC, XT, & AT running MS-DOS or IBM XENIX. Data
transfers up to 904K bytes/second. Couplers start
at $880. Complete sub-systems start at $2995.

Overland Data, Inc.

5644 Kearny Mesa Rd., Ste. A, San Diego, C A 921 1 1
(619)-571-5555 and TELEX 754923 OVERLAND

Inquiry 731.

MULTIFUNCTION BOARDS

US Made, Memory to 384K, Printer,

I/O ports: clock, battery, and more. . .

Under $200

Everett/Charles® Marketing Services

6101 Cherry Avenue

Fontana, CA 92335

800-443-1860 Calif. 800-821-0589

FEBRUARY 1 986

The Buyer's Mart-

HARDWARE

HARDWARE ADD-ONS

SOFTWARE/BUSINESS

GOULD COLORPLOTTERS

Model 6120-HP Equivalent
small footprint under $1000.

Everett/Charles® Marketing Services

6101 Cherry Avenue

Fontana, CA 92335

800-443-1860 Calif. 800-821-0589

Tandy 1000 Hardware

TanPak Multifunction Cards $329

Memory to 512K. RS232. Clock. DMA

TanPak Secondary $249

Memory to 256K, RS232. Clock

10 Meg Hard Drive with Controller $549

20 Meg Hard Drive with Controller $749

Hard Drive Specialist

1-800-231-6671 or 1-713-480-6000

16208 Hickory Knoll, Houston, Texas 77059

PC-File III™ Version 4

Search, sort, browse, global changes, macros, mailing
labels, format reports with selection & calculations, sub-
totals, totals, averages, encryption. Exchange data with
1-2-3. WORD. WordStar. Over 190.000 users. $59.95 +
$5 s/h. For IBM PC.

ButtonWare, Inc.

P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006
1-800- J-BUTTON

Inquiry 699.

Inquiry 658.

INFORMATION SERVICES

E(E)PROM, PROM PROGRAMMER

Program all EPROMS, EEPROMS,
microcomputers, zero-power RAMs, 35 nS
PROMS for under $300!

B & C Microsystems

See our ads on page 422.

TURBO S.I.X.

The Turbo Pascal Software Information exchange
offers its members megabytes of Turbo Pascal
code for only $6 per diskette. Also a monthly
newsletter. Send $1.95 for the TURBO S.I.X.
catalog. Deductible from the $19.95 membership
fee when you join. MC/Visa.

TURBO S.I.X.

2012 Lake Air, Dept. B2, Waco, Texas 76710
(817) 753-2182 (817) 776-3103

PC-File/R™

All the power of PC-File III plus: Relational link to
other databases, integrated letter writing & mail-
merge, context sensitive pop-up help windows. New
binary search retrieves data hundreds of times faster.
$149.95 + $5 s/h.

ButtonWare, Inc.

P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006
1-800- J-BUTTON

Inquiry 656.

Inquiry 755.

PERIODICALS

68000 COMPUTERS

Single board computers, 128K to 1M RAM, 4 serial,
2 parallel ports (expandable to 22 ports total), flop-
py controller for 2 to 4 drives, SASl interface for Win-
chester addition, timer/clock, real time multi-tasking
multi-user operating system, assembler, line editor,
2 screen editors, spreadsheet. From $995.00

AAA Chicago Computer Center

120 Chestnut Lane - Wheeling, IL 60090
(312) 459-0450

DISCOVER ROBOTICS

Robot Experimenter™ magazine shows you how to
take the next step in the computer revolution by free-
ing your computer to roam about the house. REx
is designed for both educators and experimenters.
Subscribe now to explore the world of tomorrow.
• $24.00 for 12 issues. MC/VISA/CHECK •

Robot Experimenter

POB 458, Peterborough, NH 03458
603/924-3843

PC-Type™

Fast, compact, capable & easy! Help panels, hands-
on tutorial, macros, multiple-line headings & footings,
DOS path support, print spooling, block operations,
etc. ASCII files. Install program allows customization.
$59.95 + $5 s/h. For 128K IBM PC.

ButtonWare, Inc.

P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006
1-800- J-BUTTON

Inquiry 650.

Inquiry 741.

Inquiry 660.

HARDWARE ADD-ONS

SOFTWARE/BUSINESS

APPLE & IBM PERIPHERALS!

FACTORY DIRECT! lie 64K/80 Column Bd. $39.
lH- /Me Cooling Fan $24.95. II + /He Mouse w/SFWR
$49.95. Joystick III w/fire on stick Apple or IBM
$24.95. 1 Ft IBM Parallel Cable $12.95. RAM Set/9
PC-$5 XT-$7. Add $3 Shipping. Write for complete
list.

NEXO DISTRIBUTION

8824 Golf Drive - Spring Valley, CA 92077

(619) 589-7928

LP88-LINEAR PROGRAMMING

A powerful menu-driven system lor solving linear programs w/
up to 510 constraints & 2510 variables. Features include in-
teractive & batch operation, spreadsheet-styte input & editing.
storage of problems & bases, Simplex Algorithm restart, repoit
generator, sensitivity analysis. Req. IBM PC, 192K. $99 w/8087
support, user's guide. VISA/MC.
EASTERN SOFTWARE PRODUCTS INC.
P.O. Box 15328, Alexandria, VA 22309
(703) 549-5469

PC-Calc™ Version 3

64 columns x 256 rows, math and stat. functions,
horizontal bar graphs, title locking, individually ad-
justable column widths. IF. . .THEN, link to other
spreadsheets or PC-File databases, much more. Re-
quires 256K IBM PC. $59.95 + $5 s/h.

ButtonWare, Inc.

P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006
1-800-J-BUTTON

Inquiry 728.

Inquiry 686.

Inquiry 661.

HYPERION/AGILE USERS

Are you running out of memory? Hyper Ram-
Miniature external plug-in module (AV2" x 5'/b"
x . 75") increases the memory to 512 K o r 640K.
Now available! $299/$399.

Technovation Research

63 Widdicombe Hill Blvd. Suite 1103

Weston, Ontario M9R 4B2

(416) 245-1656

TPRO88 - ROUTE FINDER

A powerful interactive system for finding routes on
transportation networks w/up to 51 2 nodes and 32K links.
TPRO88 can find the shortest path between two nodes,
sequence up to 50 stops, compute minimum spanning
trees and times/distances between all points. Req. IBM
PC, 192K, graphics adapter. $99 w/8087 support, user's
guide, sample U.S. Highway network. VISA/MC.

EASTERN SOFTWARE PRODUCTS, INC.

POB 15328, Alexandria, VA 22309
(703) 549-5469

TAXPAK-86 Eases Tax Hassle

Fast, friendly, full-featured tax program in its 4th year.
Menu driven. Unique status line shows wealth of info.
What-if function explores tax options. Complete recalcula-
tion in only 1 second. Prints in IRS format. $39.95 for IBM
PC. Apple II. CPM-80. Try-it-first disk only $3.

PEOPLEWARE

10762 Twin Spruce, Golden, CO 80403
(303) 642-01 01 VISA/MC

Inquiry 687.

Inquiry 735.

TURBOCHARGER FOR IBM

s Increases processing speed over 300%
s Full software compatibility with PC and XT
s Supports Intel 1 MHz 8087 coprocessor

Everett/Charles® Marketing Services

6101 Cherry Avenue

Fontana, CA 92335

800-443-1860 Calif. 800-821-0589

Inquiry 693.

CUSTOM PAYROLL

All systems have multiple pay categories, calcula-
tion of all taxes, user defined deductions. 401 (k)
handling, many reports, paychecks, W-2 forms, and
much more. Custom features are available. Prices
start at $695 for system, manual, and PC Basic
source code.

Datasmith, Inc.

Box 8036, Shawnee Mission, KS 66208
(913) 381-9118

Inquiry 678.

Programmers:

We guarantee our products to be solid, bugfree.

* CorrectForth - Very professional.

* Correct_Datamizer - 50:1 data compression

guaranteed.

* SafeModem - Hackerproof.

$80.75 per program MC/VlSA/MO/Check. Specify
computer.

Correct Software, Inc.

RR1 Box 140, Black Hawk, SD 57718
(605) 787-5904

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 407

The Buyer's Mart-

SOFTWARE/BUSINESS

SOFTWARE/BUSINESS

SOFTWARE/BUSINESS

MY WORD!® is just $35.00

Complete word processing plus sort, add rows & col-
umns, mergeprint, quickprint, macros, math, micro-
justify, use all 256 char. Source: add $35. 1 50 page
printed manual. 30-day money-back guarantee.
IBM PC or compatible, 1 28K, one drive, any printer.

T.N.T. SOFTWARE, INC.

34069 Hainesville Road, Round Lake, IL 60073
(312) 223-8595

1985 TAX PREPARATION

Fast, easy to use package prepares and prints 1985
Federal income tax returns using form 1040. Fully interac-
tive, menu driven. Follows IRS forms. Supports 26 forms
plus multiples. MS/PC-DOS, 128K; Prof. $149.00; Pers.
$39.95; VISA/MC ($5 SH)

Dunphy Systems, Inc.

P.O. Box 326. Worthington, OH 43085-0326
614-459-2349 (orders 800-622-4070; III. 800-942-7317)

ABACUS

ONLY FROM SUNSOFT . . . Complete Accounting System for
$49.95 plus S&H. SOURCE CODE only $20 extra!!! Complete
documentation. Runs on CP/M & PC-DOS systems with
CBASIC 2-5V4" DSDD min.

' completely menu driven

' full file maintenance

• G/L A/P. A/R P/R. O A

SUNSOFT Inc.

P.O. 1168, Marquette, Ml 49855
For orders; 1-800-624-7008For info.: (906) 226-3370

Inquiry 754.

Inquiry 750.

MINUTE-a-DAY MANAGER™
TAX SURVIVAL SPECIAL

New Shadow Writing"" feature adds the power of Al
to your record keeping. 256K MS/PC-DOS package
includes FREE Custom Calendar Kit PLUS:

• CHECKBOOK/CREDIT CARD MANAGER

• COMPUTER LOGGER • AUTO LOGGER
Visa/MC (May be tax-deductible.)$59.95 + $3 s&h

Multi-Data Management Associates
1-800-255-2255 ext. 3300

- FIND LOTUS BUGS FAST -

The Cambridge Spreadsheet Analyst gives you:

* AUTOMATIC scanning of EVERY CELL for errors

* Tools to investigate underlying assumptions

* reports for complete documentation

$149 ($10 for demo)

For IBM/PC. XT, AT (123 & Symphony not required)

CAMBRIDGE SOFTWARE

COLLABORATIVE

University Place, Suite 200, Cambridge, MA 02138

800-446-1238

PC-Write™ Shareware

Fast, friendly, flexible word processor and text
editor for IBM PC. Easy to use. Advanced features
like macros, split screen, footnotes, mailmerge.
Many good reviews, thousands sold. All software,
manual on disk $10. OK to copy! Register for full
manual, support, source $75.

Quicksort (206) 282-0452 Visa/MC
219 First N. #224 J, Seattle, WA 98109

Inquiry 710.

Inquiry 663

Inquiry 740.

SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS!

STSC, Inc., an established publisher of microcomputer
products, is looking for IBM-compatible finished business
application software. We provide authors with advertis-
ing, marketing, and distribution expertise, as well as finan-
cial backing and an established dealer network. Call
today!

STSC, Inc.

2115 East Jefferson St., Rockville, MD 20852
(301) 984-5442

DATA ENTRY SYSTEM

Heads-down data entry with two-pass verification for
the PC/XT/AT & compatibles. Loaded with features
like: Auto dup & skip, verify bypass, range checks,
& table lookups. Fully menu driven only $395.
Call for free 30 day trial period.

COMPUTER KEYES

6519 193 SW, Lynnwood, WA 98036
(206) 776-6443

ENHANCE YOUR PRINTER!!

Print i n a variety o (fonts and sizes with your Epson
(or compatible) printer. Prints SIDEWAYS too. Great
for letters, spreadsheets, . . .even signs and banners. 1
Create your own fonts to print. DigiCon Print
Package-$49.95 (for IBM PC).

Digital Concepts, Inc.

P.O. Box 8345, Pittsburgh, PA 15218

(412) 823-8314

TAX-PREP '86
MAKES TAXES EASIER

Multiplan, 1-2-3 or Excel users, easily
prepare totally professional tax returns. 22
linked schedules, IRS approved printout.
IBM, Apple, TRS-80, CP/M $129.95; MAC
$99.95. Call now for full information.

EZWare Corporation
(215) 667-4064

Inquiry 695.

dFELLER Inventory

A business inventory program written in
modifiable dBASE source code. The menu-driven
program lets you locate items by inventory name
or number. It keeps track of reorder points, ven-
dors, average cost, and other info. Requires
dBASE II or III. PC-DOS/CPM $150.

Feller Associates

550 CR PPA, Route 3, Ishpeming, Ml 49849
(906) 486-6024

STANDARD FORMS

Easy to use with on screen step by step prompts.
Prints data required in proper spaces on any
preprinted form thatfits in your printer. Free phone
support. $79 (VISA/MC/AMEX). MS-DOS/CPM-80.
Other original software. FREE catalogue.

MICRO-ART PROGRAMMERS

173 Birch Avenue, Cayucos, CA 93430
(805) 995-2329 (24 hours)

TurboTax(R)

"Very easy to use. Documentation-Excellent"— PC
Magazine. POWERFUL and FAST' 33 forms plus
multiples. CALCULATES in 3 seconds! Pop-up menus.
IRS approved. 1986 planning module. Many extras.
Simply the best! IBM & compatibles. 256K. $65 + $5
S/H. Visa/MC. Many states avail.

ChipSoft, Inc.

5674 Honors, San Diego, CA 92122

(619) 453-8722

SOFTWARE/COMPILERS

dBASE II, III
COMPILERS

Which one should you buy?
Send for our test results!
Nantucket Clipper for dB III. Wordtech for dB III. Word-
tech tor dB II. All at $ best prices!
VISA/MC/COD

Engineering Systems

1148-5 Executive Circle, Cary, NC 27511
(919) 467-3428

Inquiry 651.

SOFTWARE/EDUCATION

U.S. QUIZ GAME $12.95

4,000+ FACTSI 12 QUESTION CATEGORIES!
GEOGRAPHY, LANDMARKS, HISTORY, ETC. 1-6
players compete. IBM PCjr/PC/XT/AT & COMPATIBLE.
128K OR HIGHER, DOS 2.0 OR HIGHER. MIN; 1 360K
DRIVE. ADD $3. S/H (AZ RESIDENTS ADD 6.5% TAX).
INDICATE COLOR OR MONO. DISPLAY.

SONORAN ARIZONA SOFTWARE, INC.

3039 W. TIERRA BUENA LANE, PHOENIX, AZ 85023

(602) 993-8917

Inquiry 681.

ALL FORMS TAX SOFTWARE

• Individual Federal Income Tax Software

• Computes all forms and schedules

• Prints all forms

• IBM-PC, XT, AT & compatibles

$49.95

Unique Computer Systems

140 East Commonwealth Ave. #208

Fullerton, CA 92632

In CA. 1-800-331-5088 714-525-7118

Inquiry 756.

408 BYTE

► TIME & BILLING ^

400 clients/20 partners/80 job & 40 out of pocket
categories/20 areas of practice/fixed fee or hour-
ly/morei Prints billing/statements/aged rec's/more!
Free phone support. $149 (VISA/MC/AMEX). MS-
DOS/CPM-80. Other original software. FREE
catalogue.

MICRO-ART PROGRAMMERS

173 Birch Avenue, Cayucos, CA 93430
(805) 995-2329 (24 hours)

TEST MAKER!

QuickTests™ helps you find questions and print tests.
ENGLISH, FOREIGN LANGUAGE. MATH. SCIENCE,
AND OTHER CHARACTERS can be displayed and
printed. Lengthy questions of any type are entered by
you! 30-day money-back on complete packages. 128K
Apple He & He. $155 protected, $180 unprotected, $5
preview.

Seven Hills Software, Corp.

2310 Oxford Rd., Tallahassee, FL 32304
(904) 576-9415

Inquiry 743

FEBRUARY 1986

The Buyer's Mart-

SOFTWARE/EDUCATION

SOFTWARE/GENERAL

SOFTWARE/GENERAL

TEACHERS!

THE ASSISTANT TEACHER Handles almost every
aspect of test preparation, administration, grading,
analysis, curving, averaging and reporting. Includes word
processor, optical scanner support, much more! Extreme-
ly flexible and easy to use. Satisfaction 1 guaranteed.
$150.00. Manual $10.00.

OVERDRIVE COMPUTER CORPORATION

1562 Moorings Dr., Reston, VA 22090
(703) 471-0959

Inquiry 730

WORD IMAGE

Edit 4 files, undo, sub-directory, big files, macros,
on-screen attributes, command driven, batch files,
search/replace in ranges, help, all printers, manual,
fast, MORE. Needs 320KB, PCDOS 2.0 + , and
360K disk. Intro: $50.00, 30-Day trial.

Software Ideology

P.O. Box 305, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11204
718-236-3876

THE MAGIC KEYBOARD $46.50

Print Letters from 3/32" to 100', or Sideways to 12".
1 fonts. Print one line a t a time o r from text file. Store
signs, posters, overheads, large labels, etc Okidata
92-3,192-3, Epson FX, Star Micronics, Proprinter.
MS-DOS & Kaypro.®

WOODSMITH SOFTWARE

Rt. 3-Box 550A, Nashville, IN 47448
(812) 988-2137

SOFTWARE/GENERAL

LEARN TOUCH TYPING NOW

Are you a hunt-and-peck typist? Then you need the
TOUCH TYPIST computer typing course. Over 10,000
have already learned to type with TOUCH TYPIST. For
IBM-PC, DEC Rainbow, or DECmate II and III. List $79.
SPECIAL PRICE $27.97. FREE SHIPPING. MC/VISA.
COD + $3.

Newline Software

P.O. Box 289, Tiverton, Rl 02878
(401) 624-3322

Dr. T's MUSIC SOFTWARE

A music composition system with true word-
processing capabilities for APPLE and COM-
MODORE microcomputers. Also, patch librarians for
YAMAHA and CASIO synthesizers. MODEL-T inter-
face available for COMMODORE 64/128. Call or
write for prices and more information.

66 LOUISE RD.
CHESTNUT HILL, MA 02167

(617)244-6954

Complete Home Accounting Only S29.95

One easy-to-use system that provides: complete check-
ing, savings and credit card management, a comprehen-
sive budgeting tool, a financial statement generator, sharp
graphics, and on-line help screens to guide you each
step of the way. Great for home or small business use.
CPA designed. IBM PC/XT & Compatibles
with DOS 2.0 or later and 192K.

PARSONS TECHNOLOGY

• 6925 Surrey Dr. NE., Cedar Rapids, IA 52402
(319) 373-0197 CHECKA/ISA/MC

Inquiry 725.

Inquiry 682.

FREE SOFTWARE

Disk includes sample programs of TOUCH TYPIST,
PROFESSIONAL TEXT PROCESSOR, and PRO-
FESSIONAL SPELLING CHECKER. Plus informa-
tion about other software and computer products.
Indicate IBM-PC or DEC Rainbow or Zenith Z-100.
$3 s&h.

Newline Software

P.O. Box 289, Tiverton, Rl 02878
(401) 624-3322

CPM-80 LIVES on your PC

CP/Mu!ator puts a 4mhz8 bit CP/M emulator in your IBM-
PC for $99.

- A great 8 bit development system

• Saves expensive CPM-80 applications

• Increases PC speed 10% for 8088 programs

- Priced less than most software only products

- Uses no valuable board slots

Source Information

P.O. Box 2974, Warminster, PA 18974
Phone (215) 628-4719

Church Package

Parishioner Time, Talent and Treasure System pro-
gram is written in modifiable dBASE source code.
• Contributions • Disbursements • Ledger
• Names with mailing labels
• Personal information database.
Requires dBASE II or III. PC-DOS/CPM-80 $200.

Feller Associates

550 CR PPA, Route 3, Ishpeming, Ml 49849
(906) 486-6024

Inquiry 748

Inquiry 697

TAX PREPARER PROGRAM

Prepare client's or your own Fed. Income taxes on your
PC. Simplified data input. Program calculates and pro-
duces printout for transfer to IRS forms 1040, 2210,
Sched. A. B, C, G, & W. ForlBM-PC, Zenith Z-89. Z-100,
DEC Rainbow. Requires BASIC. List $60. SPECIAL $39
+ $3 s&h.

Newline Software

P.O. Box 289, Tiverton, Rl 02878
(401) 624-3322

POWERFUL FILE MANAGEMENT

I.D.T.'S FileManager® for people serious about their
systems. No kid stuff— only powerful managing tools.
File sort, copy. move, delete, search & change attributes.

Undelete and clear files.
EDLIN enhancer & batch mode clean up and more.

Menu driven.

$34.95 (about 1 /3 Norton's) MC/VISA

INTEGRATED DATA TECHNOLOGY, INC.

4775 Bunchberry Lane, Colorado Springs, CO 80917

ORDERS: 303-488-2583

► SOFTWARE FOR PENNIES ^

GET BEST AND LATEST PC-DOS. CP/M-80 AND
CP/M-86 PUBLIC DOMAIN PROGRAMS FOR
BUSINESS, PERSONAL, EDUCATION. SOFTWARE
DEVELOPMENT, MODEM ING. SCIENCE. AND MORE.
AT LOW COST OF COPYING. 3V 2 , 5V* AND 8" DISK
FORMATS ARE SUPPORTED. SEND $6.00 FOR
CATALOG.

MULTIPATH, INC.

Box 395, Montville, NJ 07045

(201) 575-5880

Inquiry 721.

SOFTWARE/GRAPHICS

Al for the IBM PC

TOPSI is a full version of OPS5 which runs under MS-
DOS. Unix or CP/M. A fast, efficient expert system
development tool.

Prototyping; $75

Production: $175

C version, add $20 Shipping, add $5

Dynamic Master Systems

POB 566456, Atlanta, GA 30356
(404) 565-0771

MARKET MASTER

Track, project and graphically analyze any invest-
ment!!! Stocks, Bonds, IRA's, Pensions, indices,
mutual funds, gold!! Manage your portfolio, generate
earnings/c-gains reports, portfolio stats, before/after
tax ROI & MUCH, MUCH MORE!!! LOTUS 1-2-3
compat! IBM PC & jr w/256K. $59.95 + $2 s/h.

SOFTWARE DIMENSIONS

P.O. Box 2083, Livermore, CA 94550

THE DRAWING TABLET

Draw lines, circles, parallelograms, arcs. Paint
with 100 different brush sizes in four shades.
Block functions with the ability to replace, overlay,
inlay. Save to disk or printer. Store symbols in
libraries. Text capability. Only $49.95 + 3.00 s&h.

K SOFTWARE HOUSE

Rt. 2, Box 83B1 Unionville, TN 37180

(615) 294-5090

Inquiry 685.

Inquiry 746.

APPLE II USERS:

3780 RJE WORKSTATION EMULATION
3270 TERMINAL EMULATION
No special software or protocol converter is re-
quired in the mainframe. Interfaces to all major IBM
operating systems. Fast, error-free bisynchronous
transmission, easy to use. APPLE-BISYNC by
Urgeo Software, Inc.

I Call us collect at: (509) 838-6058

Inquiry 757.

Personal Tax Planner, $75.00 a lotus template for 1-2-3 or symphony
One lile includes the 13 most commonly used federal forms, which
can be combined with one state file (all states with income tax & sales
tax are available). All forms federal and state are interactive.
Micro-One-Write, $95.00 a checkbook accouting system
This unique single entry system is fast, accurate, and very flexible
Unique leatures include windowing instant viewing of active account
or department codes and running balance of money accounts. Ex-
port results to Lotus or dBase.

Permar & Associates

800-538-8157 ext. 955 In CA. 800-672-3470

1125 Sunnyhills Rd.. Oakland. CA 94610

Include $3.00 s&h. CA residents add 6 5%sales tax

Inquiry 736.

THE DGI TYPE SHOP

Turn your IBM or APPLE computer and HEWLETT-
PACKARD plotter into a desktop publishing system. THE
DGI TYPE SHOP offers a quick and economical alter-
native to typesetting - PLOTSETTING. Price $175. Ten op-
tional fonts that range from a very formal script to Greek
- Scientific are available.

DECISION GRAPHICS, INC.

RO. Box 2776-B, Littleton, Colorado 80161

Phone (303) 796-0341

Inquiry 679.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 409

The Buyer's Mart-

SOFTWARE/GRAPHICS

SOFTWARE/LANGUAGES

SOFTWARE/LANGUAGES

FORTRAN PROGRAMMER?

Now you can call 2-D and 3-D graphics routines
within your FORTRAN program.

GRAFMATIC: 75 callable routines for

screen output. $135.
PLOTMATIC: Pen plotter driver. $135.
For the IBM PC, XT, AT and compatibles. We sup-
port a variety of compilers, graphics boards and
plotters.

MICROCOMPATIBLES

301 Prelude Drive, Dept. B

Silver Spring, MD 20901

(301) 593-0683

BYSO® LISP

for IBM PC
INTERPRETER S150

(includes Visual Syntax®)

COMPILER S395

for stand alone expert systems, etc.

Levien Instrument Co.

POB 31 , McDowell, VA 24458
(703) 396-3345

CROSS ASSEMBLERS with
"UNIVERSAL" LINKER and
POWERFUL LIBRARIANS
for IBM PC MS-DOS

Full featured for most microprocessors

ENERTEC, INC.

BOX 1312, Lansdale, PA 19446
215-362-0966 MC/VISA

Inquiry 715

Inquiry 690.

SOFTWARE/LANGUAGES

SOFTWARE/SCIENTIFIC

Minnesota 3 N O B O L 4 L 3nguage
Powerful siring &data handling facilities. Interpreter com-
patible with mainframe SN0B0L4. 32K strings, 32 bit in-
tegers, 8087 for float & large memory model. Sample pgms
include ELIZA. For >128K IBM PC/MS DOS or compatible.
Authoritative "green" book by Griswold available.

Guide +5V« " diskette $44.95

Guide + green book + dkt $59.95

Green book only $24.95

Postpaid in USA. In NY add tax. VISAVMC (914) 271-5855

BERSTIS INTERNATIONAL

POB 441, Millwood, NY 10520

Tools for CB80 & CB86

BDOS, DOS. and BIOS calls from CB80 and CB86!
CBC Tools includes functions for directory access,
string ops, a debugger, radix conversion, command
line parsing, quicksorts, bit and byte ops, and much
more. Available for CP/M-80, CP/M-86, and PC-DOS
for $180.00.

Minnow Bear Computers

POB 2233 Sta. A, Champaign, IL 61820-8233
(217) 398-6883

Affordable Engineering Software

CALL or WRITE for FREE CATALOG
Circuit Analysis • Root Locus • Thermal
Analysis • Matrix Manipulation • Signal Pro-
cessing • Filter Design • Graphics • Text
Proofreader

BV Engineering

2200 Business Way Suite 207, Riverside. CA 92501
VISA7MC (714) 781-0252

Inquiry 662.

UNIVERSAL CROSS-REFERENCER

— WORKS WITH ALL LANGUAGES—

BASIC. C, Pascal, FORTRAN, COBOL, ASM. . .

You name it!

MS/PC-DOS V2+. IBM PC, XT & compatibles

Unbeatable at $39.95 + $3 s/h. MC/Visa/Check

DALSOFT SYSTEMS

3565 High Vista. Dept E2
Dallas, TX 75234 (214) 247-7695

Symbolic Debugger for Turbo Pascal™

- Set breakpoints at line numbers or procedures

- Display and modify variables symbolically

- Fully integrated into Turbo Pascal environment

Requires Turbo 2.0 or 3.0, IBM PC version.
Only S49 plus S2 S&H.

KYDOR COMPUTER SYSTEMS

812 S. Sherman St., Richardson, Texas 75081

(214) 669-1888

ENGINEERING SOFTWARE WRITTEN
BY ENGINEERS FOR ENGINEERS

Highest power per dollar. Highest power per K of
memory. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Electronic Circuit Analysis .$450.

Logic Simulation System $395.

Tatum Labs

33 Main St.. Newtown. CT 06470
(203) 426-2184

Inquiry 676

Inquiry 706.

Inquiry 739

TURBO CROSS $39.95

Crossreference Generator
for TURBO PASCAL™

600 lines of source code per minute (disk oriented). IBM
and compatible PC's. 256KB minimum required.
AMEXCO. MC. DINERS CLUB. VISA accepted.
Sorry no COD. or purchase orders.

GIP

POB 2226, D-3000 Hannover 1, West Germany

CBTREE FOR C PROGRAMMERS

Provides enhanced file handling calls directly in-
to C programs. Maintains balanced B-trees, sup-
ports unlimited number of keys, data records,
and key lengths. Fast, Flexible, Efficient. No
royalties. Source Code Included.
New Low Price: $99
PEACOCK SYSTEMS, INC.
2009 Hileman Rd., Falls Church, VA 22043
(703) 893-0118

CADD for S99.95

FEATURES: Drawing layers • User Defined Fonts

• Component Libraries • Video & Digitizer Menus

• Color Graphics.

Autocad™ file conversion • $24.95
Dot Matrix Printer/plotter option - $24.95
MC. VISA, COD, add $3.00 for shipping.
60 day money back guarantee.

GENERIC SOFTWARE

6 Lake Bellevue #203, Bellevue, WA 98005
1-800-228-3601

Inquiry 768

Inquiry 734.

Inquiry 6

ATLAS SYNTAX VERIFIER
& TUTOR

* In accordance with IEEE Std 716

* Save valuable test station debug time

* Runs on IBM PC or work-alikes

* $400 each or $550 for both

DUBERT International, Inc.

(619) 277-4700

PROLOG Source Code in C

Complete source code for a ProLog Interpreter. EXE files
for PC & compatibles. Includes applications: Intelligent
Spreadsheets, 8088 to 6502 translator. 1 70 page manual.
Money back guarantee.

$49.95(4- $15 outside U.S.)

A. I. Coder

Box 7552. Rapid City. SD 57709
(605) 348-5643

IBM" PC & PASCAL PROGRAMMERS
Tested Turbo Pascal" Source code

Super Tools'": • Windows S45 • Math Expression
Evaluator S35 • System & File Info S30 • All Three S75.
Savant Tools 1 ": • RPMath: routines for complex math,
equation solving, curve fitting etc. S55 • IPMath: all
RPMath but in Infinite precision S85.
(Call or write (or info )

Paragon Courseware

4954 Sun Valley Rd., Del Mar, CA 92014
(619) 481-1477

* INSTANT EDT/ASEM $50 PPD. *

Full Macro Assembler. All the features of IBM's &
Microsoft's. Syntax and file compatible. Runs like 'Tur-
bo Pascal ' Write, assemble and run programs in
seconds, in memory! "WordStar" like editor built in. Sup-
ports full Intel 16-bit family. PC-DOS, MS-DOS compati-
ble Money back guarantee!

Computer Solutions

P.O. Box 354, Mason, Michigan 48854

1-800-874-9375 VISA/MC 1-517-628-2943

Catalog with 300 items sent with order.

Inquiry 670

410 BYTE

SIMULATION LANGUAGE

TurboSim allows large discrete event simulations i.e., manufac-
turing systems, healthcare systems, etc. to be run on a micro.
It features a comprehensive final report, histograms, plots and
multiple simulation runs in an unattended mode. Sourcecode
is written in Turbo Pascal and is included. Borland International's
Turbo Pascal and an IBM/PC with 64K are required S49.95.

Micro Simulation

37 William J. Heights, Framingham, MA 01701
(617) 875-6098

Inquiry 718.

SYSTEM DESIGNER

SD is a tool for the design of hierarchical systems and
processes, representable by trees. SD breaks a task of
designing a large system into a great number of small,
easy tasks while keeping track of all pieces. SD plots a
graph of a tree representing the proposed system. The
price is $399.

CUSTOM SYSTEMS

23Crestwood Ct., Lansdale, PA 19446
(215) 468-7773

Inquiry 675

FEBRUARY I986

The Buyer's Mart-

SOFTWARE/SCIENTIFIC

STATISTICS

UTILITIES

BEAM ANALY. & SPRING DESIGN

Beam analysis program calculates shear, moments, reac-
tions, slopes and deflections in beams. Price: $50.00.
Helical spring design program for compression, exten-
sion and torsion springs. Price: $75.00.
Both packages include disk and documentation For
Apple II series of computers or IBM PC. PCjr and
compatibles.

SYLCA CORPORATION

33-47 14 Street, Dept B, Long Island City, NY 11 106
718-278-4604

NUMBER CRUNCHER STAT SYS

Menu-driven. Multiple & stepwise regression.
ANOVA. time series, discriminant analysis, principal
components, scatter plots, histograms, t-tests, con-
tingency tables, nonparametrics. Import export data.
Sort, join, merge. Site license $79. IBM
PC/Macintosh.

NCSS-B

865 East 400 North, Kaysville, UT 84037
801-546-0445

PACKED UTILITY DISK

HOT FOR

STUFF QtH ft IBM-PC

EXPECT A MIRACLE!

MICRO TOOLS INC.

POB357 N. Chili, NY 14514 (716)594-1088

Circle the Inquiry #719 . . . We'll do the rest

Inquiry 751.

Inquiry 723

tnquiry 719

Digital Logic Design on the Macintosh™

The LogicWorks'" series allows you to create, test
and document digital circuitry on your Macintosh.
Full simulation capability lets you catch design errors
before committing your circuit to hardware. From
$79.95 (US). Demo pkg. $10. Visa/MS Accepted.

Capilano Computing Systems Ltd.

Box 86971, N. Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V7L 4P6
(604) 669-6343

RATS!

RATS is a fast, accurate & complete regression pack-
age with unsurpassed POWER. Has both time-series
& cross section analysis. Includes Box-Jenkins, logit
& probit. Spectralanatysis& graphics also available.
Requires 256K RAM, IBM PC or compatible. $200.
MC/Visa.

VAR Econometrics

P.O. Box 19334, Minneapolis, MN 55419
(612) 822-9690

COPYWRITE

CopyWrrte backs u p hundreds of the most popular pro-
grams for the IBM PC. CopyWrite is revised monthly to
keep up with Ihe latesl in copy protection, and comes
with a trade-in offer. It needs an IBM AT, XT, or PC, 128K
and one disk drive, but can use more memory or another
drive. $50 US. Check/Credit Cards

QUAID SOFTWARE LIMITED
45 Charles St. E. 3rd Fl.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4Y 1S2
(416) 961-8243

SOFTWARE/SYSTEMS

ACT1 PROFESSIONAL FULLY

INTEGRATED ACCOUNTING SYSTEM

for PC-DOS

Proven 3'/? years. Includes General Ledger; Accounts
Receivables; Order Entry/lnv.: Accounts Payable: Inven-
tory; Payroll (incl. Post Facto).

only $99.50 plus ship. & hand.
(800) 344-2540

Cougar Mountain Software

Box 6886, Boise. ID 83707

STATISTICS CATALOG!

If you need statistics for IBM PC or Apple II, call

us and let ourtechnical advisors help you find the

statistics programs you need.

Write or call now to get a FREE catalog of statistics

and quality control software.

HUMAN SYSTEMS DYNAMICS

9010 Reseda Blvd. Ste. 222

Norlhridge, CA 91324

(800) 451-3030 (818) 993-8536 (CA)

DOS PATHING EXTENSION

Give your software the full PA THING capabilities that
are missing from the 2.xx and 3.xx versions of MS-
DOS and PC-DOS. FULLPATH object license:
$19.95, source license: $399.95. (+$5 S&H + 6%
in MN). VISA/MC/PO/CHK 30 day money back
guarantee.

P. R. GLASSEL and ASSOCIATES, INC.

30255 Fir Trail, Stacy, MN 55079
612-462-1337

Inquiry 770.

Inquiry 738

MCFORMAT $50

Don't let DOS waste your disk space 1 Add up to 50%
morehard disk capacity to your IBM PC, XT, AT or 100%
compatible by selecting format parameters, including
cluster & directory size. Fully DOS compatible (3.0 or 3.1).
VISA/MC.

Microcomputer Concepts, Inc.

9715 SE 43 St., Mercer Island, WA 98040
(800) 722-8088 (206) 236-2300

STATISTIX™

$75 - Satisfaction guaranteed

A comprehensive, powerful, yet easy-to-use
statistical analysis system for IBM PC/XT/AT's, Ap-
ple ll's, and MS DOS machines. Clear 200p manual.
Write for information.

NH Analytical Software

801 West Iowa Ave., St. Paul, MN 55117
(612) 488-4436

MEDIA MASTER PLUS

READ, WRITE, and FORMAT over 60 CP/M disks and
run most CP/M-80 programs on your IBM PC! Two pro-
gram package includes ZP/EM, a CP/M-80 emulator pro-
gram that transforms your IBM PC into a 1-2 MHZ CP/M
2.2 computer. $59.95 + $3.00 S/H (CA 6%)

Intersecting Concepts, Inc.

4573 Heatherglen Ct. Ste. 10

Moorpark, CA 93021

(805) 529-5073

Inquiry 716.

Inquiry 77I.

Inquiry 704.

UTILITIES

LASER TYPOGRAPHY $495.

Typographic composition software to drive the Cor-
ona L300 Laser Printer as a typesetter. H & J 24
proportional space fonts, widths for 78 fonts
available. Mix face & point size on any line,
multicolumn capability.

Micro Print-X, Inc.

P.O. Box 581, Ballinger, TX 76821
(915) 365-2343 Dealer Inquiries Welcome

BASIC PROGRAMMERS

Add SALT & PEPPER to your existing/new programs.
Create dazzling Menus, intelligent Input Screens. Walk-
ing Strings, ASC/DescSort. PRT. SCR. Data processing
& more. SALT & PEPPER has 28 modules, (in MS-DOS
compatible BASIC). They merge with your program in
minutes. S & P performs all the tricks. YOU get the ap-
plause. $59.95 plus $2.50 s&h. Demo disk $2.50 ppd.

MC,VISA COMPUTER GURU

40 Wagner Ave., Piscataway, NJ 08854
201-356-6477

EXPERT SOFTWARE

releases new product

• File-Lock is a file security system

• Program diskette becomes a file key

• Locks files and denies access

• Easy to use. directories capability

• For IBM PC, XT and compatibles

• Only $24.95 plus $2 shipping

• Send check or money order to:

EXPERT SOFTWARE, Marketing Dept.

11112 Smokey Quartz Lane, Potomac, MD 20854

Inquiry 668.

Inquiry 694

BACKBONE"

The Easy DOS-Interface for IBM PC/XT/AT and Com-
patibles. Customize linked menus with the MENU
PROCESSOR™. Then, any program, batch process,
submenu, even DOS, may be accessed by a keystroke.
A perfect hard disk organizer, idea\ tor LAN'S. Provides
speed, convenience, simplicity. Only $39.95 + $4 p&h.
Guaranteed! And Well Supported!

SYNCHRONY SYSTEMS

4191 San Juan Ave., Jacksonville, FL 32210
Orders: 1-800-237-6360 x314ln F L 1-800-282-1152 x314

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
LIBRARY SYSTEM

TLIB'" keeps ALL versions of your program in ONE
compact library file, even with hundreds of revisions.

• 5 times faster than Unix SCCS

• LAN-shared libraries with PC Network

MS/PC-DOS 2.x & 3.x $99.95 + $3 s&h

BURTON SYSTEMS SOFTWARE

POB 4156, Cary, NC 27511
(919) 469-3068

MAILMERGE WITH DBASE II

Merge ASCII/Word Proc. files with any DBASE II
system. Works with MS and PC/DOS. Written in "C"
- Super Fast. Many uses - Letters. Labels, Envelopes
etc. $50 includes user manual.

To order with VISA/MC call
1-800-367-8047 ext. 150

ALOHA SOFTWARE

275 Puuhale Rd., #203, Honolulu, HI 96819

Inquiry 654.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 411

MYSTIC PASCAL

Fastest Compiler on Earth

NOW ONLY $1E!H

• 640K code, data and stack

• incremental compiler runs in back-
ground while you are editing

• effective compiler speed greater
than 100,000 lines/min

• immediate execution of Pascal
statements

• true multi-tasking for up to 100
Pascal procedures

• full screen editor

• complete Help windows

disk with condensed manual to print out $16—

printed manual $16— both $32— for IBM PC 256K

Visa/MC/COD— add $2 shipping, COD $5,

overseas $10

Mystic Canyon SoFtwars

P. OB. WW

Pecos. NM 97552 505/757-6344

NO SHIPPING CHARGES
ORDER TOLL-FREE 800-824-3432

DRIVES

1 zHT. IBMCOMPATIBLE

TANDON 100-2

TANDON 100-4 (80 TRACK)

MONITORS
Princeton Graphics MAX-12E
Princeton Graphics HX-12

ADD ON CARDS
Multifunction Card w/384K RAM
Included. Serial/Parallel Port,
Clock/Calendar, Game Port
Monochrome Card
RGB Card

SYSTEMS
BLUE XTRA

• PC/XT Compatible

• 1-V 2 HT. 360K Floppy

• 135W Power Supply
FULL WARRANTY

HARD DRIVE SUBSYSTEMS
10 MEG. "zHT.
20 MEG. '2 HT.
30MEG.
42 MEG.
85MEG.

159.99
449.99

159.99
99.99
119.99

• 8 Slot Motherboard

• 256K RAM

• Runs IBM DOS 2.1 or 3.1
699.99

449.99
549.99
1099.99
1499.99
2799.99

NICORN ELECTRONICS

Un.lB-8 Chalswonh CA 91311

M.nimum or<l«i SiOOO No snipping charges <x
S3 00 UPS Blue .idd $3 00 CaM residents
cnertsneldtofcleaiaricc VISA MC

COLOR
VT100$150

* plus your
PC, jr, XT, AT or compatible

ZSTEMpc-VT100 Smart Terminal Emulator
132-col. by windowing - no addit. hardware

Double High Double Wide Characters

Full VT100 line graphics. Smooth scrolling

2-way file transfers incl. XMODEM and KERMIT

Full keyboard softkeys/MACROS

Speeds to 38.4KB. High Throughput

Color/graphics, monochrome & EGA support

International Font Support • DOS Access

ISO and attribute mapped color

ZSTEMpc-VT100 $150. 4010/4014 Option $99

30 day money back guarantee. MC/VISA.

KEA SYSTEMS LTD.

#412- 2150 W. Broadway

Vancouver, B.C. CANADA V6K 4L9

Support (604)732-7411

TELEX 04-352858 VCR

Order Toll Free (800) 663-8702

^ * l(TiA

Zstem

Inquiry 23 1

Inquiry 343

Inquiry 366

MAPIT

• Make your own MAPS!

• Simple to produce filled and
labeled MAPS with your data

• Most country and state out-
lines included with MAPIT.

• It is easy to control labels,
symbols, outlines and titles.

• MS-DOS or PC-DOS with 128k

• Any printer or HP plotter.

• Only $95. Manual alone $10.

• County outlines available:
$95 for all 48 states.

Questionnaire Service Company

Box 778, E. Lansing, Ml 48823

(517)641-4428

TURBOLINK+

Add 512K of TURBO
Pascal* to your code

Call up to 8 memoryresident TURBO Pascal modules
from programs written in:

• BASIC, BASICA Compiled BASIC

• MS Pascal, C, MS FORTRAN

• All TURBO Pascal variants (standard, 8087,
BCD)

Add TURBO Pascal's 8087, BCD and graphic cap-
abilities toother languages
Automatically generate TURBO Pascal compatible
inline machine code

Use all TURBO Pascal variants in a single pro-
gram

^CAQ^ Foreign orders add

jpOJJ $10.00

shipping and handling included
VISA/MC: 1 -800-835-2246 ext. 123
KANSAS CALL: 1-800-362-2421 ext. 123
DEALER INQUIRIES AND TECHNICAL
INFORMATION; (303) 971-0729
PATHFINDER SOFTWARE, INC.
P.O. Box43, Littleton, CO 80160
*TURBO Pascal is a registered trademark of
Borland International

TAX PAK

INTEGRATED TAX PROGRAM WITH:

Forms

Schedules

1040 Tax Return

A Itemized Deductions

1040 A Short Form

B Interests Dividends

2106 Employee Bus. Exp.

C Business Profit or Loss

2119 Sale of Residence

D Capital Gains

2441 ChildCare

E Supplemental Income

3468 Investment Credit

F Farm Income

3903 Moving Expense

G Income Averaging

4562 Depreciation

R Elderly/DisabledCredit

4684 Casualties & Thefts

SE Self Employment

5696 Energy Credit

W Married Cpl. Both Work

8" FORMATS: (SSSD only) CPM 2.2 (280), CPM86.
5V* " FORMATS:(DSDD only)IBM PC-DOS 2.1 or later,
CPM 2.2 (Z80) lor Televideo, KayPro, Morrow. Osborne

Suitable for multiple clients or evaluating alternate filing
strategies Produces transcribeable IRS forms S33.
For 1986 edition, return 1985 serialized disk and S27.00.
Licensing and volume discounts available.
To order send check or money order to:

CANDELARIA WORKS

3955 Club Dr. Atlanta. GA 30319

404/266-2420

Inquiry 276

Inquiry 250

Inquiry 55

PC EXPANSIONS

AST SixpackPlus (384K) $259

Advantage (1 28K) $389

Advantage (1.5M) $539

Advantage (3M) $799

I/O Plus $129

Quad board (384 K) $235

LibertyAT(2M) Scall

QuadportAT $ 1 35

Tecmar Maestro (2.5M) $609

HERCULES graphics board $299

Color Card $159

Everex Graphics $call

HAYES Smartmodem 1200B $359

Smartmodem 1200 $399

Maynard Disk Controller $100

Sandstar Series $call

Internal 10MB

HD systems from $599

MaynStream Tape backup from $979

Set of 9 chips (64k) $8

Set of 9 chips (256k) $25

8087-3 $119

Qume 142A $109

Teac FD55B $ 1 09

Teac FD55BV (for AT) $109

Tandon TM100-2 $109

CDC 9409 $119

Verbatim ( Box of 1 O) $ 1 9

Maxell (Box of 1 for AT) $39

VLM Computer Electronics

10 Park Place • Morristown, NJ 07960
(201 ) 267-3268 Visa. MC, Check or COD.

1st PLACE

COMPUTER SYSTEMS
13422 N. CAVECREEK RD.

PHOENIX, AZ. 85022

CALL FREE 1-800-841-2748

ALTOS-2086T80 $14,599

LEADING EDGE SCALL

ITT PC $CALL

ZENITH SCALL

STAR SG10 $214

JUKI 6100 $339

WYSE 50 $419

QUME 101G $289

CITIZEN MSP10 $255

HARD DRIVES $CALL

MODEMS $CALL

OTHER NAME BRANDS IN STOCK
CALL FOR LOW PRICES

« PROMPT DELIVERY!!!

fS SAME DAY SHIPPING (USUALLY)

OUTSIDE OKLAHOMA: NO SA

LES TAX

^f V20 CPU ut sie.oo V30 CPU

C« $17.50

8087-2 Math Coprocessors

140.00

DYNAMIC RAM

T: j 256K 64Kx4 150 ns

$4.75

i ' 256K 256Kxi 120 ns
2 3 256K 256Kxi 150 ns

3.25

2.47

5 S 128K 128Kx1 150 ns

3.50

I I 64K i6Kx4 150 ns

2.75

s \ 64K 64Kxi 150 ns

1.49

» 1 EPROM

i: = 27C256 32Kx8 250 ns

S7.50

* { 27256 32Kx8 250 ns
I 5 27C64 8Kx8 250 ns
1 * 2764 8Kx8 250 ns

4.75

3.75

2.50

1 3 STATIC RAM

11 6264LP-158Kx8 150 ns

$2.99

jjPg

OPEN 7 DAYS: WE CAN SHIP VIA FED-EX ON SAT.

MasterCard 'VISA or UPS CASH COD

Factory New, Prime Parts JJHco

MICROPROCESSORS UNLIMITED, INC.

tttMOSST (918) 267-4961

Prices shown above are for Jan. 27, 1986

Ptoasu can tot ajtrent price-; Pn>-., vjli.'-ct so tr,,vYf Ck;;vj- e,|».*ji hrjr^ « bwef preos or

DELIVERY

-

I parts due to supply & demand and ot
ctscounl prora ytv.-i i »• \ r, n -. <-.■■. - i by 6 PW CI _
morning, vta Federal L>pn»a Standnro Aif t> $6 00, or Pnortty One ft. SI3 00!

Inquiry 367

Inquiry 226

CALIF ORDERS & TECH INFOR

213-644-1140

STORE HOURS:

Dealer & OEM Inquiries Invited

MON - FRI 9:00am . 6:00pm
SATURDAY 10:00am - 5:00pm

ORDERS ONLY - TOLL FREE

-800-421-5775

SUN-XT

SUN-XT COMPUTER SYSTEM

(IBM PC/XT COMPATIBLE)

k $895.00

SUN-XT Computer System is an IBM Compatible
System. It works with the same software used on the
IBM; Lotus 123, Symphony, DBASE II & III,
Framework, AutoCAD., Wordstar, MultiPlan, etc.
The basic system is fully operational. All you need to do is insert your DOS
disk and application software. (Does not run prog, that require ROM BASIC).

• Uses MS g PC DOS Operating System § XENIX Compatibility.

• RAM Expandable to 640K On Board.

HARDWARE INCLUDES:

□ CPU Board with 256K RAM

□ Computer Cabinet

□ Enhanced Full Funtion Keyboard (Large RTN £ Shift Keys).

□ 2 Disk Drives (DSDD, 360KB, Vi Height).

□ 135 Watt Power Supply

□ Floppy Disk Controller

□ 12" Green High-Resolution Monitor (TTL).

□ Monochrome Graphic Card (720x348) w/Parallel Printer Port.

□ Fully Assembled and Tested.

□ Meets FCC Class "A" Reg. for Industry £ Business use.

SUN-ST

COMPUTER

SYSTEM

D 8MHz (70% Faster) CPU
(Option: 8087-2)

□ 2 Disk Drives (DSDD,
360KB, 16 Height).

□ 256K RAM (Exp. to 640K)

□ Monochrome Graphic
Card w/Parallel Port

□ Enhanced Full Function
Keyboard (Large Return
and Shift Keys).

□ 135 W Power Supply

□ 12" Green High-Resolution
Monitor (TTL).

□ Compatibility Same As
SUN-XT

$995.00

SUN-AT
Mother Board

□ High performance and speed
true 16 bit 80286 micro-
processor (80287 Opt).

□ 640K Memory

□ 6MHz System Clock

□ Built-in Real-time Clock
(Battery back-up optional).

□ Dimensions and Expansion
same as IBM-AT. (6- 1 6 bit,
2-8 bit)

□ Expand Multi-User many
Megabyte with ZENIX).

□ 7 Channels DMA, 3
Channels Timer

□ Fully IBM/AT Compatible.

□ PC DOS 3.1 Compatible.

Please Call for
SYSTEM PRICE

SUN-XT CPU

D 8088 CPU (8087 Option)

□ RAM Expandable to 640K
D Fully IBM Compatible

□ Same Dim. as IBM PC/XT

□ No RAM Included

□ 8 Expansion Slots

$175.00

Multi-I/O Board

D Floppy Disk Drive Controller
(2 Disk Drives)

□ Parallel Printer Port

□ Serial I/O Port (Opt. Dual)

□ Clock Cal. w/Battery back-up

□ Game Port

$149-00

Full Function

Enhanced Keyboard

□ Enhanced layout like Selectric

□ Large Return Key

□ Large Shift Key

D Caps, Numeric, Scroll, Lock
Light Indicator

$79.00

SUN-ST CPU

70% FASTER

Fully IBM PC/XT Compatible

Run 8MHz using 8088-2 with

8087-2 Optional. Same

Dimension as IBM PC/XT

Expandable

to640K $275*00

"Gold Star"
RGB Monitor

D 1 3" Display DB-9 Connect
D 640x400 High-Resolution
D 2500 Characters (80x32)
D RGB TTL Level Signal
□ 0.3 1 mm Dot Pitch

$365-00

Monochrome
Graph Card

□ 720(H)x348(V) High-Res.

□ 80x25 Text Mode

□ Run Lotus 1-2-3, etc.

D With Parallel Printer Port

$120-00

Color G Card

D RGB § Composite Video
D 640x200 High-Res.
D 320x200 Mid-Res (Color)
D 80x25 Text Mode
□ Light Pen Interface
D 16 Colors

$99.00

Hi-Res. Mono
Monitor

□ 12" Green Monitor

□ 800 Lines at Center
D 18MHz Band Width

□ Separate TTL Sig. Input

□ Dual Intensity Sig. Level

$105.00

Floppy Disk
Controller

□ Standard 5JT DSDD

□ Run 2 Internal S External
Ports

□ Cable for Internal Drive

$59.00

Multi-Function
Board

D RAM Exp. to 384K (OK)
D Serial/Parallel Port

□ Clk Cal w/Battery Back-up

□ Gameport, Spool £ RAM
Disk

$129.00

PC/XT
Power Supply

D Wide Input Voltage Range
D Built-in Input EMI Filter

□ Soft Start g Auto Fault Rec

□ Overload, Overvoltage, and
Short Circuit Protection

D Compatible Functionally §
Mechanically w/IBM PC/XT

135 Watt $89.00

150 Watt $109.0

IBM PC/XT
STYLE CASE

□ 8 Slot Back Panel

□ Incl Mount Brk/Hardware

□ Fits IBM Power Supply

n ^ Sw " ch $59.00l

AT Style Computer
Cabinet Call

200 Watt Power
Supply Call

AT Style Enhanced
Keyboard .... Call

FDC & Hard Disk
Controller .... Call

Color Graphics &
Mono Graphics
Card Call

1.2Mb 5J4" Disk
Drive Call

20Mb Hard Disk
Drive Call

D 1 0Mb Hard Disk w/Controller $450.00

D 20Mb Hard Disk w/Controller 550.00

D ASYNC RS232 Card 59.00

D Parallel Printer Port 39.00

D Dual Game Port 39.00

□ 57 6K RAM Expansion Card (OK) 59.00

D KB5 1 5 I Compatible Keyboard $109.00

□ EPROM Prog. (27 1 6, 32, 64, 128).. 139.00

□ 256K RAM Kit (9 ea) 35.00

D Parallel Printer Cable 15.00

□ 6 Outlet Surge Suppressor (Midland

Ross Ind) 14.50

□ Citizen MSP-IO $299.00

D Citizen MSP- 1 5 $375.00

□ Swivel Monitor Base (MN-5) 15.00

□ Tatung 1370 High Resolution

(800x400 w/BOB Card) 870.00

□ 514" DSDD Vi Height Disk Drive. . . .89.00

SUIMTRONICS CO., INC

12603 Crenshaw Blvd., Hawthorne, CA 90250

TERMS: VISA .MasterCard [Ng Surcharge]. COD. Cash or Certified
Check [VISA orMC Ref. Required]. School S. Gov. Contractor P.O.
accepted. Shipping S. H/C $4.00 for 3 lbs plus $ .60 for each addi-
tional lb. CA residents add Calif, sales tax. $1 0.00 Min. order.
IBM is a registered trade mark of International Business Machines

Inquiry 315

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 413

Inquiry 107

CCT-4

SYSTEM
SERIES

The latest CCT implementation of the new
generation Intel 16-Bit Processor technology.
This means extrem e speed, unequaled power,
and the ultimate in reliability, and of course, the
innovators at CCT behind it.

This series in the CCT line exploits the speed and power of the Intel 80286 and Zilog Z-80H (8MHz), on the 286Z CPU
board. This combination, along with CompuPro DMA controllers and I/O boards, yields a dramatic improvement in system
throughput speeds, from basic CP/M operation, up to large powerful multi-user/multi-tasking machines. The CCT-4
represents the most advanced hardware presently available in a microcomputer to run the thousands of CP/M type
software programs on the market, and with CONCURRENT DOS 8-16 and the CompuPro PC Graphics board (when
available), all software written for the IBM PC machines. This series is for the serious business/scientific user.

CCT-4A State-of-the-art power in it's basic form. Consists of CCT-286Z CPU board and CCT-M256 (256K), along with Com-
puPro: Enclosure 2 Desk (21 slot MF), Disk 1A, System Support 1, Interfacer 4, the CCT-2.4 floppy drive system, and
CP/M 8-16, and with SF-200 surge suppressor system $5,269.00

CCT-4B Single-user/hard disk power. As the 4A, except priced without the CCT2.4, to add in your choice of CCT hard/floppy

combination drive subsystem, at the published pricing $4,149.00

(Example: CCT-4B Mainframe with CCT-10/1 = $6, 198.00) Plus cost of selected drive subs v stem

CCT-4C o Multi-user/hard disk power. As the 4B, with the CCT-M512 (512K static RAM board) instead of M256; Interfacer 3 in-

a)S* stead of lnterfacer 4 SF-400 instead of SF-200, plus Concur. DOS 8-16 O.S (4 to 6 user system) .... $4,999.00

o$$^- (E* am P le: CCT-4C Mainframe with CCT-40/1 = $8,048.00) p,us cost of selected dnve subs v stem

^A^ Limited Time Offer - FREE 80287 Math Chip with any CCT-4! fy +/(jQ

^y,J& The above systems include all necessary cabling, assembly, testing, minimum 20 hour burn-in, CfJ?£

v ^ and the CCT unconditional 12 month direct warranty. A

CCT-M512

WORLD'S TOP SELLING CCT STATIC RAM. IEEE Standard 12MHz. 512K in one slot! — Special Price: $799
CCT-M256 256K version of M512 upgradeable to full 512K. Perfect 256K RAM board for any CompuPro system $439

CUSTOM COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY / BOX 4160 / SED0N A, ARIZONA 86340

TOLL FREE ORDERING: 800-222-8686 / For technical support / service: 602-282-6299

%

CYTE CONNECTION INC

BOTTOM LINE PRICE DUSTERS! - "Who \€U G< ilil*l call?"

(714)778-6496^^

PERSONAL COMPUTERS: ■■

UBM *1 (IBM Compatible). 256K. two 360 floppies, hi-res graphics card,

monitor and K B $ 9S

UBM • II, all the above. W/10MB HD . . $1 49

AT & T 6300 Plus, 256K. two 360 floppies, AT & T graphics card.

monitor and K.B. .. .. $379

all the above, w/360 floppy and 20MB HD drive with unix $439

AT&T 7300 ..../ CAL

COMPAQ PORTABLE. 640K. 360 floppy. I0MB HD $259

COMPAQ DESK PRO, 6.40K, two 360 floppies, hi-res graphics card. KB $202

all the above w/360 floppy. 10MB HD. 10MB tape b/u. ".. .$313

with 30MB $363

COMPAQ PORTABLE MODEL 286, 51 2K. two 1 2 MB floppies ...... $383

-3 1.2 floppy. 20MB HD "... . $444

COMPAQ DESK PRO MODEL 286, 640K two 1 2 floppies, hi res

graphics card." monitor and KB., S ,P., C/C $383

above with one 1 2 MB floppy. 20MB HD, 10MB tape b/u $49S

above W/30MB HD : . . . . $535

above w/70MB HD and 60MB tape b/u. .; ,.......'. ..... . $696

IBM PC. 256K. two 360 floppies, hj-res graphics card, monitor.

P:. S„ C/C, K.B. $209

above w/360 floppy. 10MB HD. 10MB tape b/u '. $313

IBM PC XT..640K. 360 floppy. 20MB HD. 10MB tape b/u $366

IBM PC AT, 512K. 1.2 MB floppy. 20MB HD. S, P.. C/C, hi-res graphics card.

monitor. K.B ". $444

IBM PC AT. above with 70MB HD. 60MB tape b/u $696

We carry all name brand MFC. modems, monitors, monitor adapters

and software. Call for what is not listed.
WE GUARANTEE THAT YOUR CALL WILL NOT BE A WASTE.

PRINTERS:

ANADEX 9620 - 9752

BROTHER DM40 -DH45

CITIZEN MSP15- 25

DATA PRODUCT 8070 - 8072

DATA PRODUCT LINE PRINTERS.

DIABLO P32-34LQ..

DIABLO AP1 - P38

EPSON 85 -185

HPLAZERJET

HP LAZERJET PLUS

NEC 3550 - 8850

OKIDATA 192-193

OKIDATA 84 - 2410

PANASONIC 1093

TOSHIBA 1340

TOSHIBA P351

PLOTTERS & DIGITIZERS:

CALCOMP1043

HP7475

HITACHI DIGITIZERS

H1 DMP41 -42

H1 DMP51/52

H1 DMP51MP-52MP

NICOLETDPX

ROLAND DPX.

Tl >:

10 LINE

SPECIALOF THE MONTH

20 MB HD, SUBSYSTEM

30,40,70 MB

163 West Cerritcs Ave., Anaheim, CA 928C5
"(714)778-6496-

414 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 51

TOLL-FREE

ORDERING:

800-222-8686

CCT

CUSTOM COMPUTER
TECHNOLOGY A

FOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT/ 1 CCT PLAZA — P.O. BOX 4160 — SEDON A, ARIZONA 86340

SERVICE / IN ARIZONA:
602-282-6299

Purchase your Hardware and Software directly from an OEM /Systems Integrator; Take advantage ofourbuying power! We stock
a full line of Board Level Components, Software and Peripherals. Call for your needs. Well give you the LowestPrices, and the Technical
Support and Know-How we are quickly becoming well-known for. Satisfied Customers Nationwide. The Nation's Custom Systems
House for Business, Education and Science. Call for a system quote. CCf Implements Tomorrow's Technology Today!™

FOREMOST QUALITY • ADVANCED SUPPORT • REASONABLE COST

Km

CCT"

I CompuPro

80286 NOW!

D CCT-286Z is our model designation
for the MI-286 dual processor board
from Macrotech. It features the super
high speed combination of Z-80H and
80286, with provision for the 80287
math chip. Directly replaces 8085/88
and8086CPUs running CP/M, MP/M
Concurrent DOS, and MS-DOS, at
throughput increases of 3X to 5X!
SPECIAL PRICE -$795
80287 Option -Installed -$250

SEE THE CCT-4 SERIES

USING THIS BOARD

DETAILED ON THE FACING PAGE

NOW!
BATTERY BACK-UP

ON
CCT RAM BOARDS!

VOLATILE PRICES
CALL FOR QUOTE

LIBERTY TERMINALS

• Superior Reliability •

110-14" GREEN-80/132 Column .. CLOSE

110-14" AMBER OUT

200-14" GREEN-80/132 Super Deluxe PRICES
200-14" AMBER CALU!

OKIDATA PRINTERS -Top Quality

182 - 80 Col . . CALL 183 - 132 Col . . CALL
192 - 80 Col . . CALL 193 - 132 Col . . CALL
84 - 132 Col/200cps-Top of the Line . CALL
For Serial Interfaces CALL

TOSHIBA P351 - 288 CPS/24 PIN - $1499

DIABLO — Letter Quality Series
Model 620 . . $969 Model 630 . . $1799

WE HAVE ALL SOFTWARE-CALL

$ ACROSS THE BOARD PRICE REDUCTIONS $

INDUSTRIAL GRADE
SUPERIOR QUAUTY

CCT DISK DRIVE SYSTEMS

S-100 HARD DISK SUBSYSTEMS

ROLLS ROYCES OF
THE INDUSTRY

Professionally engineered ST-506 type systems forthe business market S-100 Computer user. Includes
industry top quality drives, CompuPro Disk 3 DMA controller, all cabling, A&T, formatted, burned-in. Pro-
visions for up to two hard disks in each system. We include operating system update, CP/M 80, CP/M
86, CP/M 8-16, CCP/M 8-16, CP/M 68K. (/1 Systems are CCT innovated hard/floppy combinations, with
Mitsubishi DSDD 8" drive.) 12 month warranty.

CCT-10(11 + MEG) $1499

CCT-20(22+ MEG) $2019

CCT-40(36+ MEG) $2499

CCT-75(75 + MEG) $3599

CCT-90(87 + MEG) $4909

CCT-125(123 + MEG) $6099

CCT-10/1 $2049

CCT-20/1 $2569

CCT-40/1 $3049

CCT-75/1 $4149

CCT-90/1 $5459

CCT-125/1 $6649

HOT NEW PRINTERFACER1 TM -Printbufferl/OBoard.Upto1Meg.RAMonboard.Looksas/workswith
CCT Interfacer 3/4 Single or Multiuser/Interrupt driven or polled. Super-slick design handles one serial, one parallel,
BOARD software switchable. Also for Zenith and Alpha. Intro Price — $349 Incl. Cable Set.

FLOPPY SYSTEMS
CCT-2.4»Dual8"DSDD rLurri *'*' tmo CCT-5-5V4" DSDD

Mitusbishi 2.4 Megabyte in Extra Heavy horizontal enclosure, IBM Compatible Mitsubishi 360K. Extra Heavy Cabinet

removeable filter air system, all cabling, A&T, Burned in. The accommodates two drives, hard or floppy. All cabling, A&T,

fastest system available: $1229 Bumed-in. Perfect for our Concurrent DOS Package . $349

CCT-8/5 • FULL IBM COMPATIBILITY

One Mitsubishi 8" DSDD (1 .2 Meg)/One 5- 1 A " DSDD (360K) IBM Drive

For Concurrent DOS and PC DOS $1029

* SUPER PRICES * COMPUPRO COMPONENTS * IN STOCK *

CPU-Z-$229 • Disk 1A- $399 • Disk 1A w/CP/M - $499 • CPU 8086/10 - $359 • SPUZ/256K - $319

CPU 8085/88 - $229 • CPU 286 - $849 • CPU 68K - 10Mhz - $359

Disk 3 -$459 • RAM 22 (256K) - ? • RAM 23/64K - $229/128K - $299

SUPER SALE - M-Drive/H - 512K - $399 / 2 Meg - $899

Enclosure 2 Desk -$699/Rack- $749 • Interfacer 3 - $409 • Interfacer 4 -$289 • System Support 1 - $299

Concurrent DOS 8-16 (CCICMX) - $379 • CP/M 80 (CCTHMX) - $125 • CP/M 86 (CCTTMX) - $175

CP/M 8-16 (CCTTMX)- $199 • CP/M 68K (CC1CX) - $279 • Operating System Updates/Remakes - $30

16 Bit Upgrade Kit: CP/M 86, RAM 23, System Support 1 , Cable $649 D CP/M 8-16 - Kit - $673

CCT-1 - ENTRY LEVEL S-100 BUSINESS SYSTEM

' Enclosure 2-Desk-21 Slot Mainframe • • CCr-2.4-Dual 8" Mitsubishi

• CPU-Z - 6 Mhz Z-80 CPU Board • DSDD Drive System - 2.4 Megabytes •
> Disk 1A - DMA Floppy Disk Controller • • CP/M 80 - 2.2 HMX - CCT Modified •

• RAM 23 - 64K Static RAM - 12Mhz • • ah Cabling, Complete CCf Assembly,
• Interfacer 4 - 3 Serial/2 Parallel I/O • Testing, and Minimum 20 Hour Bum-in •

RUNS ALL STANDARD 8" CP/M SOFTWARE • INCLUDES OUR EXCLUSIVE 12 MONTH DIRECT WARRANTY

SPECIAL PRICE

$3,150

Prices & availability subject to change. All products new, and carry full manufacturer's warranties. Call for catalog. Free technical help to anyone. All products we sell are CCf individually tested
and set up for your system - Plug-In & Go! Arizona residents add sales tax CCT© Trademark — Custom Computer Technology; MS-DOS© Trademark — Microsoft; IBM© Trademark —
International Business Machines; CompuPro© Trademark — W.J. Godbout; CP/M © MP/M © Trademarks — Digital Research HERCULES™ Trademark — Hercules Computer Technology

Inquiry 1 08

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 415

Software Selectable for

r .___ -*—.__-«. tM^\ hjii j>9 s>onware beiectaoie ror

HIGH SPEED 12 MHZ OPERATION 6,8,10, and 12 MHZ!

FULL IBM PC-AT* COMPATIBILITY!

FOUR MEGA-BYTE RAM CAPACITY ON MOTHERBOARD!

USING 1 MEGA-BIT DRAMS.

QUANTITY DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE FOR
QUALIFIED DEALER, OEM, UNIVERSITY
AND CORPORATE ACCOUNTS.

Eight Compatible I/O
Interface Connectors

{Same as PC-AT)

Keyboard Interface

(Same as PC-AT)

Extended ROM Capability

(Operates on all compatible BIOS ROMS)

HIGH SPEED INDUSTRIAL
GRADE COMPUTER FOR:

• Scientific

• Engineering

• Industrial

• Medical

• University/Education

• Artificial Intelligence

• Etc., Etc., Etc.

- On Board Battery

I CMOS Clock CalendaT

Extended Memory Capacity!
Full Four Mega-Byte
Capacity on Motherboard!

(Uses 256k or NEW 1 Mega-Bit Drams)

, ord1§

nonW

□ ATTAK-286™ FULLY ASSEMBLED (LESS ICS) $499.95

D AT CASE 100% COMPATIBLE $129.95

D ATPOWER SUPPLY 192W $129.95

□ ATTAK-286'" TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAI $ 29.95

□ TURBO-SCOPE'" A/D BOARD $ 99.95

100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEED.
10 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE IF
,NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED!

f AJ^EpiC?kN|

' ±±^

■gjggESS

CO

EURO
CARD

A\T

CORPORATION

ADVANCED

INTELLIGENCE
TECHNOLOGY

4100 Spring Valley Road
Suite 400

Dallas, Texas 75244
(214) 490-0344

Standard Power Connector

(Same as PC-AT)

80287 Math Processor

(Same as PC-AT)

Runs Intel 80286 at
6,8,10&12 MHZ!

(Software selectable)

Peripheral Support Circuits

(Same as PC-AT)

Board Size: Standard IBM-AT*
Dimensions: 12 inch x 13.8 inch
with 6 mounting holes to fit all
AT compatible cases.

ATTAK-286™ evaluation board kit
highest quality multi-layer PC
board with full assembly
instructions and parts lists!

"IBM and IBM PC-AT are trademarks of International Business Machines

TERMS: We accept cash, checks, money orders and
credit cards. Prices and availability subject to change
without notice. Shipping and handling charges via UPS
ground SOCflb UPS air S1 .00/lb. Minimum charge S3.00.

© 1986 AIT CORP.

416 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry 10

Compu$ave

Call Toll Free: 1-800-624-8949

IN ARIZONA CALL (602) 967-3532

COMPUTERS

Altos 586-40T Multiuser System 7B95

Corona PPC-400 Port/2 FDrives 11 59

Lazer 3000/1 FDrive/Apple Comp 425

NEC APC-lll/2FDrives/RGBMonitor. .1695
Televideo PM-4T Multiuser System. . . 4895

Wyse-PC/2 Floppy Drives 1159

Zenith 158-PC/1 Floppy Drive 1549

Zenith 171-PC Port/2 FDrives 1879

Zenith 241-AT/1.2M Floppy Drive. . . . 2B49
AT&T/Amstrad/Compaq/Corvus .... CALL
IBM/Molecular/Olivetti/Sperry CALL

SHARP PC-7000 P0RTABLE/320K

2 DRIVES/IBM COMPAT

1395

MODEMS

AST Reach Halt-Card W/Soft

325

Anchor Volksmodem

55

Anchor Signalman Express

.235

Hayes Micromodem HE W/Soft

.132

Hayes Smartmodem 1200

.361

Hayes Smartmodem 12008 W/Soft. .

.345

Hayes Smartmodem 2400

.595

Novation J-Cat 300

98

Novation Half-Card 2400 W/Sott. . . .

.499

Prometheus Promodem 1200B W/Soft

.255

Racal-Vadic 1200V W/Soft

.215

Racal-Vadic 2400PC W/Soft

. . 399

Ven-Tel PC Modem Half-Card

.375

AT&T/Rixon/U.S. Robotics/Zoom..

CALL |

PRINTERS

Citizen MSP10. ..248 Abati LQ 199

C. Itoh F10-55. . . 949 Diablo D25. . . 535
Data Prod. 8052.. 11 29 Juki 6100. ... 345
Data South 220.. 1295 Juki 6200. .. .495

Epson LX90W/IF.255 NEC ELF 385

Epson JX80 289 NEC P5 965

Panasonic 1080.. 199 Star SG-10. .. 209
Panasonic 1091.. 234 Tally MT86. .. 419

Panasonic 3131.. 285 Tl 855 549

Toshiba 1340. ...429 Cables 10'.... 19

Anadex/Brother/Canon/Okidata CALL

Qume/Silver-Reed/Televideo CALL

Buffers/Sheet Feeders/Tractors CALL

Stands/Switches/Ribbons 25% OFF

Houston DMP 51/52 Plotter 3795

Roland DXY 880 Plotter 975

Enter Sweet P-600 Plotter 755

Houston TG 8036 Digitizer 3295

Other Plotters And Digitizers CALL

TERMINALS

Altos III 595 Qume 101G..289

Ampex 210 365 Qume 201G. . 525

Ampex 219 495 Visual 65.... 475

Ampex 230 449 Wyse 30 289

Liberty F220G. ... 575 Wyse 50 418

Televideo 921 .... 475 Wyse 75 555

Televideo 922. ... 595 Wyse 85 575

Televideo 955. . . .458 Zenith Z29. . . 595
IBM/CIE/Digital/Kimtron/LSI CALL

MONITORS

BOARDS

1 Princeton HX9. ... 415 Amdek 300G .1161

1 AST Advantage W/128K 375 1

1 Princeton HX12. . . 455 Amdek 310A. 142 1

1 AST Six Pack Plus W/64K 209 1

1 Princeton MAX12.16B Amdek 500. .255 1

1 Cardo G-Whiz (Commodore) 55 1

1 Princeton MD12..425 Sharp RGB. . .398 1

1 Hercules Color Card 143 1

H Taxan 115 115 Taxan 620 399 1

,.) Hercules Monochrome Graphics. ..... 289 1

1 Orange Grappler + (Apple). 70 1

1 Taxan 122 139 Taxan 640. . . 519 1

1 Wyse 600 W/Card. 519 Wyse 500. ... 169 1

1 Orange Hot Link (Apple) 49 1

1 Zenith 122/123... 79 Zenith 1240. . 165 1

1 Orchid Conquest/OK 265 1

I SPECIAL: BUI/14' VRGB/640 x 240. . . 349 1

1 Paradise Modular Graphics 258 I

1 SPECIAL: Roland/12'VGr-TTL 125 1

1 Persyst Bob Board 335 |

1 SPECIAL: Thomson/Gr-TTL/Flat Screen149 1

1 SPECIAL: Premier Color-Pack Card 105 1

1 NEC/Quadram/Tatung/Tecrnar CALL 1

1 Quadrm Quadboard/384K 245 1

1 Cables/Video Interfaces/Stands CALL 1

1 Ouadram Silver Quadboard/OK 219 1

I STB Graphics Plus II 235 1

QUALITY PRODUCTS AT

1 Tecmar Captain/384K 225 1

EXTREMELY-LOW

1 Tecmar Maestro AT 379 1

DISCOUNT PRICES.

1 ABM/Micro Sci/Microtek/PGS CALL 1

DISK DRIVES

Prac. Peripherals/Taxan/Thesys CALL 1

Apple Compatible Floppy Drives 125

SOFTWARE

IBM Compatible Floppy Drives 89

Auto-Cad (3D). . 1B95 Sorcim Payroll. . 395 1

Seagate 10M Subsystem/IBM Comp. . . 439

C Compiler 229 Sorcim Ledger. 309

Seagate 20M Subsystem/IBM Comp. . . 539

Multiplan 112 Timeline 2.0. . . 245 1

Tape Back-Up Systems CALL

PFS Access 75 Word Perfect. . . 225 1

OTHER FLOPPY AND HARD DRIVES

Wordstar 2000+ .282 Pascal Compiler. 175

•ALPHA OMEGA • MITSUBISHI

Other Apple/Atari/Commodore/IBM . CALL 1

• CONTROL DATA • PRIAM

WE ALSO CARRY

• CORVUS • SHUGART

Bonus Diskettes/DS-DD (10 per Bx) 15 1

• IOMEGA • TANDON

Maxell/Memorex/3-M/Verbatim CALL 1

• MAYNARD • TEAC

Keyboards/Joysticks/Power Supplies

• MICRO SCI • TECMAR

Chips/Mice/Labels/Surge Protectors

LOW PRICES ..CALL

Cables/Graphics Tablets/Light Pens [

HOURS: MON - FRI 8AM - 6PM/SAT 9AM - 2PM

CompuSave 3010 S. 48th St., Suite 8, Phoenix, AZ 85040, (602) 967-3533

Purchase Orders & All Major Credit Cards Welcome

Prices Reflect Cash Discounts Arid Are Subject To Change Without Notice

Minimum Shipping Charge S4 A Division of Adlanko Corporation

I Inquiry 78

PRINTERS

Oarwu NP S285

Oom»u RO 344

Oawu Compact 2 349

Star SG-10 239

Cannon Laser Printer .... 2169

Okidata, Epson, NEC CALL

Brother 1009 149

PLOTTERS

DqcdcesGcdii]

instrument

DMP-29 $1795

DMP-41/42 2365

DMP-51/52 3579

Roland DXY-BBO 979

Roland DXY-9B0 1279

EXPANSION
CARDS

Hercules Graphics Card . . $325
AST 6-Pack CALL

Paradise Multi Display .... 209
Orchid PC-Turbo 256K . . . 679
Tecmar Graphics Master . . 499

MASS STORAGE

TALL GRASS
25 MB Va Height Drive . . . $759
TG-4060 60MB Tape B/U . . . 1 299
25 MB w/60 MB Tape . . . 2769
B0MBw/60MBTape. . . 5899
10 MB Bernoulli Box .... 1859
20 MB Bernoulli Box ... . 2299
Corvus Trimline Combo . . . 2399

Con/us 21 MB 2399

Tecmar20/60 Disk/Tape . . . 2559

ScotTsdale Systems

617 N. Scortsdale |\d, Scottsdale, AZ 85257

(602)941-5856

For Inquiries

1 -800-367-2369

Toil-Free For Orders Only

SOFTWARE

Wordstar $195

Microsoft Word 239

Samna Word III 279

WordPerfect 4.1 235

Easy Writer II 219

dBasell 299

Friday! 179

R:BASE 4000 269

pfs:File/Report 159

Framework II 419

Enable 379

Supercalc 2 159

Multiplan 119

Smart Series 255

pfs:Plan 89

GEM Draw 150

Sidekick 39

Superkey 49

Print Shop 45

Norton Utilities 59

pfs:Graph 89

Dollars and Sense 109

Dow Jones Invest . . .
PeachtreeGL/AR/AP

. 99
210

ATARI 520ST

Monochrome S699

RGB Color 899

Precision Graphics/Mouse/68000
CPU/512K RAM/BMHZ Clock
Software/Parallel & Serial I/O
Optional DS Drive

ATARI
SOFTWARE

VIP Professional . .

Final Word

4 x Forth

Express

HippoWord

Hippo-C Compiler .
Hippo Disk Utilities
Ultima II

S149
. 115
. . 79
. . 39
. . 75
. . 65
. . 44
. . 49

Prices lisred ore for cash/Mosrercord ond Visa od d 3%/Amencan Expf ess odd 5%/AZ residents odd 6%/ All
irems ore newwirh monufaaurer's warranty /Rerumed product subject to 20% restocking fee/Personol &
Compony checks take up to 3 weeks to deor/No COD's or APO's/Prices ond specifications subject to
change/Product subject to ovollobiliiy/AII applicoble trodemorks recognized and on file.

H & D Toolkit 25

H & D Database 69

Zorkl 33

Zork II or III 38

Hitchhiker's Guide 33

ALTOS

20B6-2 $14599

10B6-T-50 10819

5B6, 9B6 CALL

Altos Software CALL

PC-8088
by IDS

An IBM-PC look-alike that's
compatible with your bottom line.

■8088 CPU or 4.77 MHz IMonochrcme Monitor
■Two DSDD Drives IMS-DOS, MyWnte, MyCalc

■8 Expansion Slots IFILEBASE, Spell

1 256K RAM | R G B / CompositeCard

■ 1 Year Warranty

The PC-BOBB by IDS ... $1149
with RGB Monitor 1298

COMPUTERS

The Fox S995

TurboFox 1499

The AMSTRAD System . . . 439

Inquiry 290

FEBRUARY 1986 'BYTE 417

Inquiry 227

IBM PC, 256K, 1 Drive . . .$1589.00
IBM PC XT, 256K,

1 Drive $1825.00

IBM AT 256K, 1.2 MB . . . .$3199.00

Conquest PC Turbo 640K,

2 Drives ....... ..... .$1225.00

comPAtr

Deskpro 286, 256K,

1-2 MB Drives $3349.00

Portable 286, 256K,

1-2 MB Drives $3399.00

Deskpro 256K, 1 Drive . . .$1775.00
Portable 256K, 2 Drives . .$1995.00

Amiga Computer 256K . . .$1195.00
256K Ram Memory

Cartridge $ 175.00

3.5" External Disk Drive. .$ 275^30

Printers

Epson LX80 $235.00

Epson FX85.. ...$369.00

Epson FX 185 .$509.00

Epson JX 80 ...$299.00

Starmicronic SG 10 $249.00

Starmicronic SG 15 $395.00

Cannon Wide Carriage

PW-1156 A ..$299.00

Toshiba P351. . .$1125.00

Toshiba 1340. ..$535.00

Toshiba P-341 $899.00

Okidata 182 $235.00

Okidata 192 . $369.00

Okidata 193 $515.00

Brother HR-25 .......... .$499.00

Brother HR-35 $775.00

IBM Pro Printer $425.00

Legend 1380 $280.00

Legend 1385 $375.00

Monitors

PGS HX-12 $459.00

PGS MAX-12 $179.00

PGS SR-12 $599.00

Amdek 300 Green $135.00

Amdek 300 Amber ...... .$145.00

Amdek 310 Amber

w/TTL Plug $165.00

IBM Monochrome Display .$260.00

IBM Color Display $590.00

Taxan 620, 630 & 640 CALL

SPECIAL

Eagle Monitor High Res

Green Screen
I : 720x350TTL Plug '

$99.00

MONITOR CARDS

Persyst Color $1 69.00

Persyst Monochrome $189.00

Hercules Color $169.00

Hercules Graphic $319.00

IBM Color

Graphic Adapter $225.00

IBM Mono

Printer Adapter $230.00

Paradise Modular
Graphic Card $299.00

Everex "The Edge" ..... .$299.00

Conquest Color $125.00

Conquest Monochrome . . .$145.00

Sigma ColoT 400 $495.00

Genoa Spectrum . $299.00

EVEREX

20 MB Tape Internal $739.00

45 MB Tape Internal $899.00

45 MB Tape External $999.00

Subscription Problems?

We want to help!

// you have a problem with your BYTE

subscription, write us with the details.

We'll do our best to set it right. But we

must have the name, address, and zip of

the subscription (new and old address, if

its a change of address). If the problem

involves a payment, be sure to include

copies of the credit card statement, or

front and back of cancelled checks.

Include a "business hours" phone

number if possible.

BITE

Subscriber Service

P. O. Box 328
Hancock, NH 03449

m

418 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

WE HAVE THE LOWEST PRICES - MOST ITEMS IN STOCK
WE WILL BEAT ANY ADVERTISED PRICE ON THE SAME TERMS!

SPECIAL #1

CORONA PORTABLE

• IBM Compatible

• 256K • 2 Drives
Monitor • Keyboard • DOS

$1195

All Sales Are Warranteed for 90 Days, Parts & Labor
WE SERVICE WHAT WE SELL!

MAIL ORDER AND SAVE

ORDER TOLL FREE (800) 621-0849 ext. 446

SPECIAL #2

IBM PC 256K

• Two 360K Drive

Only

$1499

SPECIAL #3

COMPAQ PORTABLE

• IBM Compatible

• 256K • 2 Drives
Monitor • Keyboard • DOS

SPECIAL #4

COMPAQ 286 PORTABLE

• IBM AT Compatible • DOS

• 1.2 Meg Floppy • 640K
• 20 Meg Hard Disk • Monitor

$1875

$4589

SPECIAL #5

20 MEG HARD DISK
FOR IBM

• Seagate
• Western Digital

$495

SPECIAL #6

PC XT COMPATIBLE

• 256K • Two 360K Drives
Keyboard • Green Monitor
• w/Graphics • Dos 2.1

$799

SYSTEMS

IBM

PC 256K, 2 Drives $1575

XT 256K, 1 Drive 1880

XT 256K, 1 Drive 1-10 MG 2280

COMPAQ

Portable, 2 Drives, 256K . .$1875
Call on Desk Pro's

CORONA

Portable $1195

Desk Top, 2 Drives, 256K
w/monitor 1479

MONITORS

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

Max 12E $159

HX-9 Call

HX-12 425

SR-12 w/doubler board 749

TAXAN

620 Color $399

640 Color 499

121 Green 125

122 Amber 135

AMDEK

310A $145

600 Color 389

722 Color 519

PRINTERS

EPSON

Call for Best Pricing

OKIDATA

182, 120 cps $218

192, 160 cps, w/Roms 349

193, 160 cps, IBM 499

84, 200 cps, IBM 658

OKI-MATE 20, Color, IBM . 229

TOSHIBA

P1340 $ 519

P351 1059

STARMICRONICS

SG10/15 $219/389

SD10/15 355/469

SR10/15 489/589

CITIZEN

MSP-10 $259

MSP-15 369

MSP-20 399

MSP-25 549

DISKETTES

Qty.

BULK PRICES

100 SS/DD 5V4 $ 59.00

100 DS/DD 5V4 69.00

100 1.2MGfor AT 5V4 .299.00

IBM EXTRAS

AST RESEARCH

SixPak + , 64K w/Side Kick . $209

Reach wCrosstalk 369

Preview Mono Card 239

Advantage wl28K 399

D & D MEMORY CARD

MF-100 + , 64K same/6Pak + $109

HERCULES

Color Card w/Printer Port . . $ 149
Mono Graphics Card 305

GOODIES

IBM Printer Cable $19

64K Ram Set of Nine Chips . 11
256K Ram Set of Nine Chips 39

Power Supply 135 Watts 84

8087 CoProcessor 109

DOS 2.1 55

DOS 3.1 64

MODEMS

HAYES

Micromodem HE $159

300 149

1200 379

1200B IBM Internal 349

2400 External 639

PROMETHEUS

Promodem 1200 $295

Promodem 1200A 309

Promodem 1200B 275

Promodem 1200MAC 339

DISK DRIVES

IBM COMPATIBLE

Teac 55B $99

Mitsubishi 4851 99

Tandon TM 100-2 99

Siemans DT542 89

In quantities of 2 or more

TEAC

55B, 320K $119

55GF, 1.2MG for AT 149

100% APPLE
COMPATIBLE 5V4 H

525A for He and 11+ $109

525CforIIc 119

350Mfor Mac Call

HARD DISKS

10 Meg for PC $259

20 Meg for PC 359

20 Meg for AT 489

30 Meg for AT 789

Controller for PC 135

BUILD A P.C.

640K Mother Board

w/8 Slots $179

Flip Top Case w/speaker ... 59

Disk Controller 49

Color Card 99

Monochrome Card 129

5151 Keyboard 99

Dual Drive Kit 189

135 Watt Power Supply 79

WE OFFER VOLUME DISCOUNTS! MAKE THAT CALL (800) 621-0849 ext. 446

SPECIAL #7

PC XT Compatible Turbo

• 640K • 8 MHz • Keyboard
Color Graphics • Color Monitor
• Dos 2.1

Complete

$1149

SPECIAL #8

IBM AT COMPUTER SYSTEM

• 20 Meg Hard Disk • 1.2 Meg Floppy
• Color Graphics • Color Monitor • Dos 3.1
FREE UPS SHIPPING ON SPECIAL #8

$4,399

SPECIAL #9

10 MEG
HARD DISK

For IBM or Compatible

Complete

$379

<*<)

Pi/counl
Computer/

SELLING TO YOU SINCE 1978

MAIL ORDER:

13324 HAWTHORNE BLVD., SUITE 201
HAWTHORNE, CA 90250

ORDER DESK:

Inside California (213) 970-0206

Outside California (800) 621-0849 x446

Hours: Monday— Friday 8 am to 6 pm
Open Saturdays

WE CARRY TOO MANY ITEMS TO LIST,
PLEASE CALL FOR A QUOTE ON ANY ITEM.

VISA

H

m

No Surcharge for Credit Cards

Terms: Prices reflect a cash prepaid discount. All merchan-
dise new. We accept MC, Visa, Wire Transfer, C.O.D.'s re-
quire deposit, Certified Check, P.O.'s from qualified firms.
Shipping: minimum $4.00 first 5 pounds. Tax: California
residents only add 6V2% sales tax. All returns subject to 15%
restock fee. Prices Subject to Change.

Inquiry 111

FEBRUARY 1986 • B Y T E 419

P-tral:

BASIC to Pascal
Translation Software

P-tral is the user-friendly translation
software that converts Applesoft BASIC
programs to Apple Pascal.

• Translates any business, scientific,
graphics and game software from source.

• Translation results approach 100%.

• Translates any sized program-
Large or Small.

• Essential compile directives generated.

• Version 1.0 5179.00.

REQUIREMENTS: 64/ 128K RAM, Dos 3.3
80-column card/Apple II, He, He
Apple Pascal 1.1 or 1.2

To order or request more information
contact: WOODCHUCK INDUSTRIES'
340 West 17th Street. New York. NY 10011
(212)924-0576/(212)206-6490

Inquiry 360

UJ

"^ (Dimensions 6"x4"x3/4 "3 "^

BI -DIRECTIONAL SER I flL'PARALLEL CONUERTER

CONUERT YOUR RS232 SERIAL PORT INTO A

CENTRONICS PARALLEL PORT, YOUR PARALLEL

PORT INTO A RS232 SERIAL PORT, JUST BY

riOUlNG JUriPERS.

NO MORE LIMITATIONS IN YOUR SYSTEn.NOW

YOU CAN CONNECT A TERMINAL TO PARALLEL

PORT, YOUR PARALLEL PRINTER TO A SERIAL

PORT, SERIAL PRINTER TO A PARALLEL PORT,

ANO riUCH MORE 22.

BAUD RATE ANO MODE FULLY SELECTABLE.

2 2 ALL IN ONLY ONE UNIT 2 2

ORDER TODAY AT INTRODUCTORY PRICE AT:

INTECTRA INC. - Department 232
2629 TERMINAL BLU
MOUNTAIN UIEU - CA - 94043
C415] 967-8818 - TLX 345545

Introductory price S 79.99
CC&llfornia residents add 6* tax -
Bay area residents add ?x tax}

TERMINAL
EMULATION

Softerm PC emulates over 30
popularterminals including the:

• DECVT102.VT220

• Data General D200, D410

• IBM 3101-20 [block mode]

• Hewlett-Packard 2B22A

• Honeywell VIP7801, VIP7803
Guaranteed Compatibility

Call for free product brief
$195 MC-VISA-COD
For the IBM PC/XT/AT, DG1 , NEC,
Wang PC, Tl Pro, Gridcase, Tandy

SOFTRONICS

7899 Lexington Dr., Ste 210

Colorado Springs, CO 80918

C303] 593-9540

Inquiry 299

DATA

• Multi-user Database!

• Powerful!

• Multiple Operating
System Compatibility!

• Attractive Dealer
Pricing!

• Full Dealer Support!

Dataflex is a trademark of Data Access

Dealer Inquiries Invited

24000 Teleyraph Road

Sourhfield. Michigan 48034 USA

(313) 352-2345

EPROM

PROGRAMMER

H

APROTEK 1000
ONLY

S~ $265. 00

»— J COMPLETE WITH

PERSONALITY
MODULE
117 VOLT AC P0WER-RS232
-6 BAUD RATES - HANDSHAKE TO HOST
ALLOWS READ, WRITE, VERIFY & COPY

Comes complete with a CPM, IBM-PC or Apple
Driver Program on Disc.

Programs the following 5 Volt 24 or 28 pin
devices: 2716 series through 27256, 25xx series,
68764 plus others. Please Specify Personality
Module desired with order. Additional Personality
Modules only $15.00 ea. Full 1 year warranty.

TO ORDER: CALL 1 800/962 5800 OR

WRITE

APROTEK

3071-AAVENIDA ACASO

Add

CAMARILLO. CA 93010

$4.00Shlpp

ng-USA

Info: (805) 987-2454

VISA or MC

Add 3%

Inquiry 25

SAVE TIME AND MONEY WITH
LOW COST PI-SWITCH BOXES.

I j LZI Starting at $59.95 l?TH
&&± fc>

•Quickly shares your computer among
multiple terminals, printers, moderns, etc.
with just a flick of the wrist.

•Compact black & beige aluminum
enclosure features a high quality rotary
switch with rear mounted connectors.

•Serial RS-232 Models have fern. 25-Pin Conn.
(Lines 1-7 & 20)

PI-02S switches 2 to 1 S59.95

R-03-S switches 3 to 1 79.95

PI-OSS switches 5 to 1 109.95

•Parallel models have fern. 36-Pin cent. conn.

PI-02-P swltches2 to 1 94.95

PI-04-P switches 4 to 1 154.95

•Dealers, schools & custom inquiries welcome.

•One Year Warrantee. COD, VISA, M/C.

•Shipping UPS$2.0O/ea. AIR $4.00/ea
CflK S~\ 7301 NW 41 St.
MIAMI, FL 33166
(305) 592-6092

Inquiry 1 66

Inquiry fc2

Inquiry 287

controls up

to 4 motors

from any CRT,

terminal or

computer

STEPPING
MOTOR
CONTROLLER

• powerful 5 amps/ • acceleration
winding deceleration

• RS232 interface • 1-4 axis moves
Standard Version with BASIC $985
16K BASIC with Battery Backup $1335
CNC VERSION $1950
Stepping Motor Tips Cookbook $8
CNC Manual $12

CENTROID (814) 237-4535
Box 739, State College, PA 16804

I/O Bus for Data Acquisition & Control

now available for IBM PC & Apple II series computers

^v«*w* ^ ^ The Local Applications J3us v v ; . ^L£B 40',

In photo are 'IAB 40-PC generators 'Ij»B 4o-1 ' signal acquisition modulo.

• Modular approach to data acquisition and control.

A 40 conductor ribbon cable bus Is generated by a card In the host
computer. Up to a low cost modules can be located anywhere on
a cable up to 10Q ft. long. Our LAB 40 generator cards for the IBM
PC or Apple II are priced at $185.

• Signal Acquisition and Control Module, model 'LAB 40-1'.
Features: 8 bit resolution. 4 channels, differential inputs, sampling
rate up to 650 KHz, software programmable gains and offset, digital
output port, low price of $220. Twelve bit module available.

• Development tool.

Unique to LAB 40 Is its ability to Interface directly to microprocessor
compatible integrated circuits and hybrids. We encourage users to
develop projects and products. LAB 40 Is an Ideal educational tool.

• New low coat modules.

Twelve bit A/D. Port/Relay Driver. Real Time Clock.

Computer Continuum

7 5 Southgate Ave, Suite 6 • Daly City. C A 94015
(415) 755-1978

maxell

BULK DISKETTES
SVa"

SS/DD $.70

3%"

SS/DD $1.60

Prices based on quantities of 500
Orders shipped with 24 hours

1-800 222-0490
201- 462-7628 in N.J.

P.O. Box 1143*Freetl0ld. N.J. 07728

Inquiry 59

Inquiry 215

FORTRON CORPORATION

3225 SELDOM COURT, FREMONT, CA 94538

INFORMATION & CALIF. RESIDENTS

[415] 490-8171

TLX: 559291 FORTRON
FAX: [415] 490 9156

When choosing a POWER SUPPLY for your PC XT. AT or Compatibles
please consider this. . .

"All look-alike supplies come with some type of
warranty, only Fortran's power supplies come with a
guarantee backed by a full U.L. rating.
Your PC represents a substantial investment, it does not
make sense to risk costly downtime due to bargain
power supplies, when for a few dollars more you can
have the confidence of Fortron quality."

Trust in Fortron quality without compromise.

FC 5192

[200 W. max.]

FC 135-40

129*

189°'

PC/XT

KEYBOARD

[150 W. max.]

For upgrade IBM PC to XT same pin out, same

dimension as IBM PC, XT

or 8 pin output connectors for Faraday

CPU board

With 4 drives connectors

Low noise DC fan, 110/230 VAC convertible

Over current, over voltage, short circuit, thermostat

protections

U.L. recognition, one year warranty

Identical dimension & pin-out to
IBM AT power supply
Faraday type pin-out available
W/4 drives connectors
High air flow, low noise DC fan,
110/230 VAC convertible
OCP, OVP, short circuit,
thermostat protections
U.L. recognition, one year
warranty

il^

m;-

8TT&\

FC427

• 5150 type

• IBM XT compa.

89 00

FC527

• IBM AT compa.

• Enlarged return
shift key

129°°

i\

FC547

• IBM XT/AT compa.

• 86 key, fast repeat

139°°

ORDER TOLL FREE [800] 821-9771

INFORMATION & IN CALIF. f415l 490-8171

COMPUTER & EXPANSION CHASSIS

FC610

DRIVES BOX 169 00

Attractive Prices for Dealers/OEM's
Please Call for Current Prices!

(V.)

mmm (H.)

w/power supply/fan
for 2 half-height
drives

FC 630 A2

99*

IBM XT identical
To use FC 135-40
power supply
Side switch
Complete mount-
ing parts

FC 630 AT

139°

IBM AT identical
Complete mount-
ing hardware
LED lamps,
speaker optional

FC 640 Expansion Chassis

259°

Ext./Rcv.
Adaptor
159 00

Comes with 5 slot mother
brd., 100 W. power supply,
cooling fan

Three Vz height drive bracket
Dia. 15H'xl2"x6M'
Ext./Rcv. Adaptor optional

FC650

8 Slots Expansion
Chassis 279°

w/8 slots mother
brd., 150 W. power
supply, cooling fan
Four Vz height
drive brackets
IBM/XT size
Interface adaptor

159 00

FC 660

12 Slots Expansion
Chassis

339°'

19>/ 2 "xl6"x5"

w/12 slots mother
brd., 140 W.
power supply,
cooling fan
Two half-height
drive brackets
Interface adaptor

159°

FC 230 Floppy
Disk Controller

• Drives 4x5 1 / 4 "
FDD

• IBM compatible

• w/cable

FC330 Hard
Disk Controller

• Up to 2 Hard
Disk Drives

• Fully Buffered I/O
Bus

• Built-in ECC

149°

FC 520 Color
Graphic Mono-
chrome/Printer

• TTL/composite level
outputs

• 320 X 200 (color)
640x200(B/W)

• Centronics printer
port

• Printer port address
selectable

• Light pen

FC940 RS232
/Real Time
Clock

• To 9600 Baud

• Battery back-up

69°° 59 Q0

Clock only

FC 830 512K

Memory

Expansion

• From 64K to 512K

• Parity-checked
memory for error
detection

Low Low Cost for IBM PC. XT. AT Add-On Cards

FC 730 AT
Multifunction
Card for PC-AT

• Game Port

• 2 EIA-RS232C
port

• Centronics
printer port

• 128K to 1.5MB
memory using
64/256K DRAM

• Expandable to
3MB (optional)

249 00

FC 930 RS232/
Parallel Port

• RS232 serial

• Parallel interface

69°'

SEME53

FC 740

MultM/0/F Card

• 1 EIA-RS232C
port. 2nd optional

• 1 Centronics port

• Clock/calendar

• Set/Retrieve clock
program

• Game port

• Control 2 Half-
Height Floppy
Drives 133

550 [CT-60401

Monochrome/Graphic/

Printer

• 80x25 text mode

• 720x348 graphic mode

• Runs Lotus 1-2-3

• 64K Graphic Display Mem.

119°

FC 730 [CT-6050C]
384K Multifunctions

• Memory Expansion to
384K

• Clock/Calendar

• Serial, parallel interface

• Game port

jsmm "

Teac 55BV 360K FDD 95 00

1.2 MB FDD for AT 135 00

10 MB HDD w/controller,

cable 439 00

20 MB HDD w/controller,

cable 549 00

20 MB 40 m. sec. Drive

only 649 00

Top Brands. Fast Delivery.

Internal Modem
179 00

Free PC -Talk
Software
300/1200 baud
Auto Busy
Redial, Auto
Answer

Dual phone jack
plus RS232 port

FC 930 AT
RS232/
Printer
Card for
PC-AT

• EIA RS232C
port X2

• Centronics
parallel port

119°°

PC/XT

Compatible

CPU

Mother

Board

Call

High Quality

TTL Green Hi-Res .119 00
TTL Amber Hi-Res. 129'

• RGB color with Green/
Amber Selection . . . 409°'

• RGB 640x200
as IBM 375°

• Hi-Res 720x480 color
with green switch . . 499°

Fast Delivery ( swiv els base optional)

RAM

CHIPS

64K 10°7

9 pes.

256K 33°7

9 pes.

128K 53/9 set

(for PC-AT)

TERMS

Min. shipping & handling

$6.00.

Can be more for actual cost.

CA. Res. add 6.5°/o tax.

No return merchandise without

a RMA No.

Restocking charge 15%.

Prices subject to change

w/o notice.

Inquiry 139 for End-Users. Inquiry 140 for DEALERS ONLY.

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 421

Space Saving CRT Arm

This sturdy steel arm swivels
360° at its base and its monitor
tray swivels and tilts. It provides a
comfortable, glare free viewing
angle, while saving valuable desk
space. Retails $89.95

Lirnekllllliii

P.O. Box 8056

Grand Rapids, Ml 49508

(616)241-4040

Time . . .

A critical

factor in

productivity

Inquiry I9l

Let the MICRODATOR

collect and compile your

production times and free

you up for decision making.

Now at an affordable price,

the MICRODATOR can

operate as a stand-alone or

be integrated with mainframes

or IBM PC and compatibles.

comae!
CHRONOTRON

8 45th Ave. Lachme, Quebec

Canada H8T 2L7 • (514) 634 9546

Inquiry 64

LOW COST UNIVERSAL^
PROGRAMMER KITS

* NO PERSONALITY MODULES REQUIRED

» ON LINE HELP AND MENU SELECTION

» ON BOARD 110/220V POWER SUPPLY

» FAST PROGRAMMING MODE AT 6V VCC

» BUILT IN MONITOR FOR 1/0 DEBUG

» CAD PCB. SILKSCREEN & SCHEMATIC

N SOFTWARE DRIVERS FOR MOST PCs

» SUPPORTS ALL 5V EPR0MS, EEPR0MS
AND INTEL MICROCOMPUTERS

KITS FROM $125 ASSEMBLED $295
DRIVERS $35 SHIPPING $4
VISA & MASTER CARD ACCEPTED

B&C M I CROS V S TE^MS

6322 Mojave dr. San Jose CA 95120
Phone (408)997-7685 Telex 4995363

DYNAMIC RAMS

120ns

41256
/41256
4164 l20ns

1^4164 150ns
4464 150ns

150ns

*3.15

_ s 1.25_

$ 7.25

■COPROCESSORS

8087-2 S135.00

8087-3 $115.00

80287-3 S185.00

■ STATIC RAMS
6264LP-15 150ns $2.95
6116LP-3 150ns $1.75

I E. PROMS I

27C256 250ns $ 7.95

27256 250ns S 4.25

250ns $ 2.75

200ns $ 3.75

250ns $ 2.25 |

250ns $ 2.10

27128
27C64

2764
2732A

i 8000's (Paris Available) I

I.C. EXPRESS

15358 Valley Blvd.. City of Industry. CA 91746

Phone: 818-369-2688 (Mon-Fri • 8-5)

ORDER TOLL FREE

(800) 892-8889 • (800) 882-81 81

Outside California Inside California

| CALL FOR CURRENT PRICES & VOLUME DISCOUNTS.|

Price Shown lot UPS COD Casn • MaslerCanJ/VJSA add y -, ma

Prices ate subject to Chanye Minimum ordei SS0 00

California residents must add 6 5= . sates ta»

Snipping & Handling UPS Ground S500. UPS Air S7 00 (under I

ALL MERCHANDISE IS 100% GUARANTEED.

MODULAR
DATA ACQUISITION

For IBM & Compatibles
Flexible and Inexpensive
Money Back Guarantee
Free Technical Support

Fast Delivery
QUA TECH, INC.

478 E. Exchange St. Akron OH 44304
(216)434-3154 TLX: 5101012726

UN IVERSAL
ERROM PROGRAMMER

* NO PERSONALITY MODULES REQUIRED
» ON LINE HELP AND MENU SELECTION
» ON BOARD 110/220V POWER SUPPLY
» FAST PROGRAMMING MODE AT 6V VCC
» BUILT IN EPR0M ERASER V/TIMER
» GANG PORT FOR FUTURE EXPANSION
» SOFTWARE DRIVERS FOR MOST PCs

* SUPPORTS ALL 5V EPROMS. EEPROMS

AND INTEL MICROCOMPUTERS

1409C-33 $5^5 1409C-34 $695

DRIVERS $35 SHIPPING $6

VISA & MASTER CARD ACCEPTED

B&C Microsystems

6322 Mojave dr. San Jose CA 95120
Phone (^08)997-7685 Telex 4995363

Inquiry 162

Inquiry 270

DUST COVER PROTECTION WITH
ANTI-STATIC, LINT FREE NYLON PACK CLOTH

Keyboard 14.00

Monitor 1 6.00

Drive 16.00

Mon/Dr Combination 1 pc 28.00

Mon/Dr/Kybd Comb. 1 pc 38.00

Printers from 1 6.00

MacintoshSet: Compu, Ky, ImageWr. . . . 24.00

IBM, APPLE, COMPAQ, AMIGA, AT&T, EPSON,

OKI, NEC, HP— OTHER COVERS AVAILABLE

Silver Gray with Black Trim

CHECK/VISA/MC

Plus $ 2 Ship. & Hand. (401) 2 45-0532

(omputerA kT

P.O. BOX 293, BARRINGTON, R.I. 02806

72 Digital I/O

PXB-721

Parallel Expansion Board

• For IBM-PC & Compatibles

• 72 Digital I/O Lines

• Simple Programming

• Uses One Expansion Slot

• Fast Delivery

$195

QUA TECH, INC.

478 E. Exchange St. Akron OH 44304
(216) 434-3154 TLX: 5101012726

SCRNGsl FREEH V

DATA CABLE ^B

SURGE PROTECTOR, MINI- TESTER, ^
MINI- PATCH BOX, GENDER MENDER,
ABC RS232 DATA SWITCH.
CIRCLE. WRITE, CALL TO FIND OUT HOW!!

ONLY

$27.96

FREE
CATALOG

RS232 SURGE PROTECTOR

This compact device does the same job as
units 20 times it's size. Self-powered it's an
inexpensive alternative to costly damage
caused by lightning or excessive power
surges. _ _

800-243-5760 203-356-9315 — ■

652 GLENBROOK ROAD, STAMFORD, CT 06906
VISA & MASTERCARD NOW ACCEPTED

Inquiry 81

Inquiry 271

Inquiry 105

74LS00

COMPUTER
PRODUCTS.

Inc.
ORDER TOLL FREE

(800)
538-8000

(CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS)

(800)
848-8008

STATIC RAMS

101

256 x4

450n

1.90

102

IK xl

450u

.79

102L-4

1 K x 1

450u

.89

102L-2

IK xl

250u

1.29

111

256x4

450ns

2.29

112

256x4

450ii

2.29

114

IK x4

450ns

.99

114-25

IK x 4

250n

1.10

114L-4

1 K X 4

450m

1.20

U4L-3

IK x4

300ii

1.30

114L-2

1Kx4

200ii

1.40

147

4Kxl

55u

3.95

101

256x4

450ii

CMOS

3.90

MS4044-4

4Kxl

450u

2.95

M84044-3

4Kx1

300n

3.45

M84044-2

4Kxl

200it

3.95

KK4118

IK x B

250u

B.95

MM2018-20

2Kx8

200ii

2.49

MM2016-IS

2Kx8

150m

2.99

MM2016-10

2KxB

IOOii

4.49

MB 11 6-4

2Kx6

200it

CMOS

2.49

1461 16-3

2KxB

150n

CMOS

2.99

(46116-2

2Kx8

120n

CMOS

5.49

1M6116LP-4

2KxB

200n

CMOS

2.99

1M6U6LP-3

2KxB

150u

CMOS

3.49

1M6116LP-2

2KxB

120ii

CMOS

6.49

•6132

4KxB

300u

29.95

1M6264P-1S

BKxB

150it

CMOS

5.95

1M6264LP-I5

BKxB

150n

CMOS

6.95

IM6264LP-12

BKxB

120ii

CMOS

6.95

DYNAMIC RAMS

rWS4027

4Kx 1

250n

1.45

JPD411

4K x 1

300rs

1.95

HMS280

4Kxl

300ii

1.95

NK4108

BKx 1

200n

.49

4145298

6Kx 1

250n

.49

1118-20

IBKxl

200it

.79

1116-15

1BK x 1

150n

.99

116-12

16Kx 1

120n

1.49

MIS

16Kx 1

150u

5»

3.95

1164-25

64Kx 1

250it

5l

1164-20

64Kx1

200ii

5v

4164-15

64Kxl

150n

5v

41256-20

256x1

200n

2.69

41256-15

256x1

150ii

2.69

EPROMS

702

256xB

1 it

3.95

708

lKxB

450n

2.49

2758

IKxB

450it

5.90

!716

2KxB

450ii

5v

2.95

2716-1

2Kx8

350n

5«

3.95

MS2516

2KxB

450ir

5v

3.95

rMS2716

2KxB

450u

6.95

14X2532

4Kx8

450n

5v

3.95

732

4Kx8

450m

5»

2.95

732 A-4

4Kx8

450ns

21l

2.95

2732 A-35

4Kx6

350ii

21*

3.95

732 A

4Kx8

250u

21*

5.95

2732 A-2

4Kx8

200ii

21l

6.95

2764

BKxB

450n

5.

3.95

2764-25

BKx 8

250n

5»

4.95

2764-20

8Kx 1

200ii

5i

5.95

TM825B4

BKxB

450it

5*

9.95

MCMBB764

BKxB

450n

5»

17.95

MCM68788

BKxB

350n

5»

19.95

27128-45

16Kx B

450ii

5«

5.00

27128-30

IBKxB

300n

5«

5.50

27128-25

IBKxB

250m

5»

6.00

27256-25

32KxB

250ii

14»

9.95

74LS00

.23

74L8125

.48

74L8280

.58

74LS01

.24

7418128

.48

74L8288

.54

74LSQ2

.24

74L8I32

.58

74L8273

1.45

74LS03

.24

74L8133

.58

74L8275

3.30

74LS04

.23

74L8136

.38

74L8279

.48

74LS05

.24

74L8137

.98

74L8280

1.95

74LS00

.27

74L813B

,54

74L8283

.68

74LS09

.28

74L8139

54

74L8290

.88

74LS10

.24

7418145

1.15

74L8293

.88

74LS11

.34

7418147

2.45

7418295

.98

74LS12

.34

74L814B

1.30

74L8298

.88

74LS13

.44

7418151

.54

74L8299

1.70

74LS14

.58

74L8153

.54

74L8323

3.45

74LS15

.34

74L8154

1.85

74L8324

1 70

74L820

24

74L8155

.68

74L8352

1.25

74L821

.28

74L8156

.68

74L8353

1.25

74LS22

.24

74L8157

.64

74L8363

1.30

74LS26

.28

74L8158

.58

74L8364

1.90

74L827

.28

74L8160

.68

74L8365

.48

74L828

.34

74L8161

.64

74L8368

.48

74L830

.24

74L8162

.68

74L8387

.44

74L832

.28

74L8163

.64

74L8388

.44

74L833

.54

74L8164

.66

74L8373

1.35

74L837

.34

74L8165

.94

74L8374

1.35

741838

.34

74L8I68

1.90

74L8377

1.35

74L840

.24

7418168

1.70

74L837B

1.13

74L842

.48

74L8169

1.70

74L837B

1.30

74L847

.74

74L8170

1.45

74L83B5

1.85

74L84B

.74

74L8I73

.68

74L83B6

44

74L849

.74

74L8174

.54

74L8390

1.15

74L85I

.24

74L8175

.54

74L8393

1.15

74L854

.28

74L8181

2.10

74L8395

1.15

74L855

.28

74L8189

8.90

74L8399

1.45

74L883

1.20

74L8190

.68

74L8424

2.90

74L873

.38

74L8191

.88

74L8447

.36

74L874

.34

74L8192

.78

74L8490

1.90

74L875

.38

74L8193

.78

74L8624

3.95

74L876

.38

74L8194

.68

74L8640

2.15

74L878

.48

74L8195

.68

74L8645

2.15

74L883

.59

74L8196

.78

74L8668

1.65

74L865

.68

7418197

.76

74L8669

1.65

74L8B6

.38

7418221

.88

74L8670

1.45

74L890

.54

74L8240

.94

74L8674

9.60

74L891

.88

74L8241

.96

74L8682

3.15

74L802

.54

74L8242

.98

74L86B3

3.15

74L803

.54

74L8243

.98

74L86B4

3.15

74L895

.74

74L8244

1.2 fi

74L88B5

3.15

74L896

.88

74L8245

1.45

74L868B

2.35

74L8107

.38

74L8247

.74

74L8689

3.15

74L8109

.38

74L824B

.98

74L87B3

23.95

74L8112

.38

74L8249

.98

811895

1.45

74L8113

38

74L8251

.58

811.896

1.45

74L8114

.38

74L8253

.58

811.897

1.45

74L8122

.44

74L8257

.56

81L898

1.45

74L8123

.78

74L8258

.58

25L82521

2.75

74L8124

2.85

74L8259

2.70

25L82589

4.20

We will try to BEAT
All Competitor's Prices

CALL for Quote!

8031

8035

8039

1NS-80B0

1N8-8073

80B0A

8085

8085A-2

8088

8087-3 (5 MHz) . .
8087-2 (8MHz) . .

8088

8080

8100

8131 ..
8155 ..
8155-2 .
8158 ..
8185 ..
8185-2 .

8000

14.90 8253 8.90

5.90 8253-5 7.90

5.90 8255 4.45

18.00 8255-5 4.90

29.90 8257 7.90

3.90 8257-5 8.00

4.90 8259 5.90

11.90 8259-5 8.90

24.90 8271 89.90

124.95 8272 19.90

109.95 8274 28.90

19.90 8275 28.00

50.90 8279 8.90

8279-5 7.90

8282 8.45

6283 8.45

2.90 8284 4.00

6.00 6286 8.45

7.90 8287 8.45

6.90 8288 12.00

28.00 8289 44.90

38.00 8292 12.90

8200

8300

8202

.... 23.00

8203

.... 38.90

8205

.... 2.00

8212

.... 1.75

8214

.... 3.75

8216

. ... 1.75

8224

.... 2.20

6226

.... 1.75

8226

.... 3.45

8237

.... 12.00

8237-5

.... 14.00

8303
8304
8307
8308
8310
8311

2.90
1.90
2.90
2.90
3.90
3.90

8238 .

8243 .
| 8250 .
, 8251 .
I 8251A

4.45
4.45
9.90
3.90
4.45

8700

8741 28.00

8748 10.90

8749 28.90

8755 23.90

80000

80188-8 90.90

80188 89.90

| THIS IS A SAMPLING
ONLY . . . CALL WITH

ALL
YOUfl COMPONENT NEEDS.

CRYSTALS

ALL STANDARD VALUES... 1

CRYSTAL CLOCK OSC.

ALL STANDARD VALUES... 4

DIP SWITCHES

4,5,6,7,8, 10 ALL... .79 ea.

ZIF SOCKETS

14 ill ZIF 4.69

16 tli ZIF 4.89

24 pin ZIF 5.89

26 ill ZIF 6.60

40 pli ZIF 0.60

ORBITAL SYSTEMS:

EXTENDED 80-Column Card
for APPLE lie

• 64K to 128K Upgrade

• 2-Year Warranty. . . . $69.95

Z-80 (CP/M) CARD

APPLE II+, ME*

• Compatible w/all Apple CP/M

• Lifetime Warranty 69.95

MEG-O-RAM
EXPAND DESKTOP
SPACE 1 MEGABYTE

on APPLEWORKSt
APPLE II et .$259.°°

APPLE ACCESSORIES

Parallel Printer Card 49.95

80-Col. card for Apple II+ ... 149.95

80-Col. card for Apple lie . . . 129.95

Serial Card (communication) . . . 69.95

Cooling Fan 38.95

Power Supply 69.95

Joystick 29.95

Joystick Adapter Apple lie . . . 1 4.95

RF Modulator 13.95

Disk Drive Full Height 169.95

Disk Drive Vz Halght 169.95

Controller Card 49.95

Apple Paddles 5.95

16K Card 39.95

+ BULK ,

* DISKETTES *

SS/DD 25/S17.25

DS/DD 25/S19.75

ATJ disks .... 25/$50.00
3 1 / 2 " disks.... 25/$50.00

ALL DISKETTES HAVE
A FULL 1-YEAR WARRANTY

UV ERASERS

QUV-T8/1 $49.95

ECONOMY Model

• Erases 15 EPROMS In 20 minutes

• Plastic Enclosure

DOKAY carries the Full Line
Lot LOGICAL DEVICES, Inc.

APPLE' or IBM' JOYSTICK
s 29. 95

rt MERCURY MODEMS rt

For APPLE* and IBM*
HAYES COMPATIBLE MODEM 195.00

- FULL ONE YEAR WARRANTY -

• IBM* ACCESSORIES •

8087-3 (5 MHz) 124.95

8087-2 (8 MHz) 144.95

TEAC 55B 99.95

TANDON TMlOO-2 129.95

135WXT POWER SUPPLY.. 99.95
512KRAM MEMORY BOARD.. 139.95
MULTIFUNCTION BOARD
with 3B4K RAM 179.95

MACINTOSH 1 UPGRADE

(Parts only)

12BK to 512K 50.00

Consists of: 16 41256 150ns
1 74F253
17 16 Pin Sockets

Resistors and Capacitors ALSO INCLUDED

t A TRADEMARK OF APPLE COMPUTER
t A TRADEMARK OF IBM CORPORATION

CALL or WRITE

for our
FULL CATALOG

TERMS: Minimum order $10.00.
For shipping and handling include
$2.50 for'UPS ground or $3.50 for
UPS Blue (air). For each additional :
air pound, add $1 .00. California
residents must include 6% sales
tax; LA., S.F., S. Cruz, & S. Mateo
counties include 6.5% sates tax
and Santa Clara include 7% sates
tax. All items subject to availability
and prices subject to change. -
Typographical errors are not our
responsibility.

No additional charge for Master-
card or Visa. We reserve the right
to substitute manufacturers and
to limit Quantities.

RMnK»nnaairani

HOURS: Mon - Fn 7 30 to 5 00;-
Saturdays. 10 00 to J OO ■
VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE

ALL MERCHANDISE IS

100% G UARANT EED

m

8051

8048

SIMULATORS - CROSS ASSEMBLERS -
PROGRAMMERS - SIM51 and SIM48 Soft-
ware Simulators run on IBM-PC, CP/M-80,
MS-DOS. Designed for validation & debug-
ging application software. Simulation
includes all on chip functions plus expan-
sion chips. $250, one year FREE updates.
Formats: PC-DOS 2.x DSDD, CP/M-80 8"
SSSD.manyS 1 /!" formats. Cross Assemblers
and EPROM pgmrs also available. Logical
Systems Corp. 6184 Teall Station, Syr, NY
13217. (315) 457-9416.

[oGJcoj S ystems

PORTABLE MEMORY
EXPANSIONS

8K MEMORY MODULES $29

For Model 100. NEC PC-8201A
& Olivetti M10

24K MEMORY MODULES $99

For Tandy 200

128K SIDESTAR$399

A Ram Disk Cartridge for the NEC Starlet

128K SIDECAR $259

Ram Cartridge for the NEC PC-8201A

TTXpress 1280 $99

Portable Thermal Printer— 2.2 lbs., bat. oper.
FREE SHIPPING IN USA

(800) 732-5012

(805)987-4788 (in Calif.)

VISA MIC &
AMER.EXP.
420 Constitution Ave., Camarillo, CA 93010

/AJCOMPUTING

R1/V 3M

W /*# FLEXYD

BETIZI

FLEXYDISKS

10-90

100 +

SS/DD
Soft

DS/DD
Soft

$ 1.15ea 1.11
$ 1.59ea 1.54,

$ 3.19 ea
$ 2.35ea $ 2.25ea

ea

ea

High Density $0 OQ
(IBM-AT) 0.£3e

3.5/SS
Micro

In Stock — Immediate Shipment.

Mastercard, VISA, Check or Money Order.

Add $3.00 shipping charges per each 100 or part.

Add $2.50 additional for C.O.D. shipments.

N.J. residents add 6% sales tax.

Data Exchange

Dept. B, P.O. Box 993
178 Route 206 South
Somerville, N.J. 08876

(201) 874-5050

Inquiry 195

Inquiry 269

Inquiry 112

TIME SAVING - MONEY SAVING

PRINTER BUFFER

SPOOL-Z-Q PLUS is .i parallel printer buffer which w>rks with any parallel printer
.ind t'rt'i". up >*njr computer lor proriuciuv use while printing. Vfei-y hifjh i.ip.itily
tlJflK to 512KI iinri Kill time spaci- ant) null char jcter Compression means that
Spocil-ZCJ I'lus is re.idy to take on lh«- really bi« |obs. A special Pause-on-
Formfeed tenure allows printing single shells irom the buffer. Spool-Z-Q Plus
also h.is CotJy. Clear, and Selt-Test funtnons built in. Supplied complete with
UL'CSA li-.tifl pijwvr supply, the Spool-Z-Q Plus hutl'er is easy to insull and use
AllmodeU.ire user expandable to 512K <nany time by |usl plugging in standard
2S6K RAM chips. Spool-Z-Q Plus is the professional's choice, for size, features,
and price

(Without Cable) 128K-S279 256K-S309 512K-S369
(Including Cable) t28K-$309 256K-S339 512K-S399
SPOOl-Z-Q BLUE PlUG IN PRINTER BUFFERFOR THE IBM PC and compati
ble computers IS A GENUINE HARDWARE PRINTER BUFFER, NOT A SPOOLER.
Parallel only .ind Serial/Parallel models available. Works with any software and
does not use .iny of the computer's memoiv Sizes from 256K to 1.024K are
available. Spool-Z-Q Blue replaces the parallel printer card in the PC IMSy be
LPT1. 2. or 3t. Many, manyadvancod features. Call or write for full details. Prices
start at S319 iParallel only) and S399 (Serial capablel.

Avail.iblf from titMlm or direct from us We accept M/C. VISA, AMEX or COD
ordeis No ch.irtie lor shipping or COD. 15 day trial period tnohassle refund
policy) on all products. CA residents — 6% tax.

-jl,

• electronic*

DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED.
O.E.M.s — We can modify our 1601 Fulton Ave.,Suite 10A

buffers to m<>ei your special Sacramento, CA 95825

(916) 483-0709

^ROSjE. DATA SWITCHES

SHARE computers, printers,
any parallel or serial device
ELIMINATE cable swapping
INEXPENSIVEwaylonelwork
COMPATIBLE with
all computers.

Businesses, Schools. Homes
WE ALSO OFFER:
Data Buflers, Line Drivers,
Modems, Protocol Converters.
Parallel - Serial Converters,
Cables, Computers. Printers.
Disk Drives, and more.
AUTOMATIC - CARETAKER is ideal for a business or
school tosharea printer or modem among many computers.
Operation is fully automatic with no software required.
Parallel or Serial 4 channels - $295 8 channels - $395
MANUAL - HARDSWITCH is operated with the Hip ol a
switch. 2:2 and 2:4 models allow simultaneous commun-
ication.

Serial 1:2 • $59 1:4 - $ 99 2:2 • $109 2.4 - $169

Parallel 1:2 -$79 1:4 • $139 2:2 -$119 2:4 - $199
LED and spike protection on serial models add $20.
CODE ACTIVATED - PORTER connects one computer to
multiple peripherals. A software code selects the peripheral.
Parallel or Serial 4 channels - S295 8 channels -$395
Bufler option 64K - $100 256K - $250

REMOTE - TELEPATH connects multiple computers to
multiple peripherals. A selector at each computer or terminal
chooses up to 4 peripherals and displays busy status.
4:4 - $495 4:8 - $795 selector - $39.
=^^^^^= (fine. <t iSoAC to y<wr complex ^^=^^^^=

ROSE ELECTRONICS (713) 933-7673

P.O. BOX 742571 MC & VISA Accepted

HOUSTON, TX 77274 Dealer Inquiries Invited

CALL US FOR ALL YOUR INTERFACE NEEDS

■*.«wwww« SINGLE

M68000 BOARD

COMPUTER

On board 6-10 MHz CPU, 20K RAM, 32K EPROM,
two RS-232, 16-bit port, 5-counter/timers
expandable via Memory/FDC Board.

M68K CPU (bare board) S 89.95

M68K CPU A&T (6MHz) S495.00

MD512K Memory/FDC (bare board) S 89.95

MD512K Memory/FDC (128K) S495.00

FDC/Hard Disk interface option S150.00

M68KE Enclosure w/power supply S249.00

M68K Monitor EPROM's ' S 95.00

M68K MacroCross Assembler S195.00

4XF0RTH OS w/assembler, editor S295.00

CP/M 68K0S w/"C" compiler S395.00

«^m«0 Educational P.O. Box 16115

i"" 1 IVI ^% Microcomputer Irvine. C A 92713
1— il T l^-F Systems (714)854-8545

Inquiry 182

Inquiry 283

Inquiry 128

ML

mBBm: State

il?s insured?

SAFEWARE® Insurance provides full
replacement of hardware, media and

purchased software. As little as $39/yr. covers:
• Fire • Theft • Power Surges

• Earthquake • Water Damage • Auto Accident

For information or immediate coverage call:

1-800-848-3469

hi Ofrio c all 1-614-262- 0559

\ -DHr tJSHIvL/
SAFEWARE, The Insurance Agency Inc.

64K-128K-256K
DRAMS

80287-8-80287-3

8087-3-8087-2

8087-1

B I T T N € R

€l€CTRONICS

899 SOUTH COAST HIGHWAY
LAGUNA BEACH, CA 92651

(714) 497-6200

CALL NOW FOR FREE CATALOG

raimflRYmflc.NDusTR.Es.Nc.

800-231-3680

Radio Shack® Tandy®
Epson Printers

People vou Trust to give vou the very best!

\^~

Reliable
Service

Quality
Products

"World's largest independent authorized computer dealer."

22511 K3tV FWV., K3tV (HOUStOn) Texas 77450
(713) 3920747 Telex 774132

Inquiry 288

Inquiry 36

Inquiry 206

Subscribe to BYTE, the small systems journal, Every month well send you
a volume jam-packed with information on hardware, software, applica-
tions and product reviews. Read your first issue. If it isn't everything you
expected, write "cancel" on our invoice. The trial issue is yours to keep,

United States

□ 1 yr. $21 (12 issues)

Canada or Mexico

□ 1 yr. $23 US (12 issues)

□ Europe, 1 yr. air deliv. $69 US

(Please remit in US funds drawn on a US bank.)

□ Worldwide 1 yr., surface deliv. $37 US
(Air delivery available upon request)

□ VISA □ MasterCard □ Bill me (US only)

4626

Name

Address

City

State/Province/Country

Code

Card ft

Signature

Expires

Allow 6-8 weeks for processing. i:nl

IE

CO

LU

^>-

UJ

OqcQ

i

CO

<lull
co=Ji

o

CO<H

n

LL

UJ

o

Z

LULL

Z —

1—
z
3

him

<"

Si

^ z

>-£

-J <

Uj8

DCi

co^

cos

UJQ-

-^ CO
" CO

^™ <

^™ _l

C/)°

BU

FIRST

The > ^*"- j: 1200 bps & 2400 bps Modems

Fully Hayes Compatible
2 Year Warranty

Supports all 20 Hayes Commands
and all 6 responses

• Tone & Pulse dialing • Built-in speaker

• Auto dial/auto answer • 8 status lights

• Auto speed selection • Self-test

1200 bps Standalone 2400 bps Standalone

Bell 103 and Bell 212A CCITT V22, V22BIS, Bell 212A,

Compatible and Bell 103 Compatible

$199

$399

1200 bps IBM PC
Compatible Card w/MITE
Communications Software

$199

BBPRIZIP12

(4 lbs.)

Retail $299.00 BBPRIZIP24 (5 »*> Retail $599.00 BBPR1ZIP12B < 4 idd Retail $299.00

VIDEO MONITORS

IDM-PC - COMPATIBLE MONITORS

PGS MAX-1 2 Amber 1 2" 25lbs. BBPGXMAX1 2
PGS HX-12 RGB 12"37lbs. BBPGXHX12

AMDEK 310A Amber 12" 26lbs. BBADK310A
AMDEK600 RGB 640x240res35lbsBBADK600C
AMDEK700RGB720x240res35lbsBBADK700C

GENERA! PURPOSE
AMDEK300 Green Comp. 1 2" 25lbsBBADK300
AMDEK300A AmberComp 1 2"25lbsBBADK300A
AMDEK 300C Color/audio Comp. BBADK300C
13" 25 lbs.

AMDEK 500 RGB/Color Comp. BBADK500C
13"25lbs.

IBM COMPATIBLE BOARDS

AST

SixPacPlus 64K BBAST6PACK64

RAM Page! 256K BBASTRP256

MegaPlusll 64K BBASTMP2

MegaPak 128K for above BBASTPAC4

Preview! BBASTPRVW

QUADRAM
EXPANDED QUADBRD zero K BBQDRQDBRDXPO
QUADBOARD II zero K BBQDRQDBRDIIO

GOLD QUADBOARD zero K BBQDRGO

SILVER QUADBOARD zero K BBQDRSO

LIBERTY BOARD 64K BBQDRL64

QUAD 512+ 64K BBQDR512

QUADCOLORII BBQDRQDCII

HERCULES
MONO GRAPHICS CARD BBHECGC

COLOR graphics card BBHECCC

ORCHID
CONQUEST zeroK BBORCCQ

CRAMRAM Half card zeroK BBORCCR

SIP panel mem exp for above 256KBBORCCRRP
PC TURBO 186 BBORCT86

Serial daughter board for above BBORCT8650

$179
$479
$169
$429
$479

$129
$139
$249

$259
$399
$349
$179
$279

$239
$199
$499
$279
$349
$259
$399

$339
$179

$369

$369
$ 79

$829
$129

PARADISE

5 PACK zero K BBPAR5PACK $149

5PACK W/384K inclded you install BBPAR5 PACK384 $ 1 99

EMULEX/PERSY5T
BOB Super display adaptor BBPSTBOB $399

EXPANSION CHIPS

64K Expansion Contains PDBIBMMEM9

9 64K x 1 150nS RAMs $12.00

256K Expansion Contains
36 64Kx 1 150nS RAMs

56K Expansion Contains
9 256Kx 1 150nS RAMs

1 MEG Expansion Contains
36 256K x 1 1bOnS HAMs

PDBIBMMEM36
539.00

PDB256MEM9
$49.00

PDB256MEM36
$189.00

KEYTRONICS KEYBOARDS

Improved PC type 5lbs BBKEYKB5151 $189

KB5 151 with touch pad 5lbs BBKEYKB5153 $379

POWER SUPPUES FOR IBM PC™

170watt replacement 7lbs BBTEATP409B $159

130watt replacement 6lbs BBTEATP412 $99

TERMINALS

WYSE 50 32lbs BBWYS50 $499

2 or more $479

WYSE 30 32lbs BBWYS30 $359

QUME 101 Amber32lbs BBQMEQVT101AM $349

QUME 101 Green 32lbs BBQMEQVT101GR $349

MODEMS

HAYES

2400bps Smartmodem 4 lbs. BBDCH2400 $599

1200bps Smartmodem 4 lbs. BBDCH1200 $399

1200bps PC Smartmodem 4 lbs. BBDCH1200B $379

PROMETHEUS

ProModem 1200 Standalone 4lbs BBPRMPM1200 $299

ProModem 1200 for MAC 4lbs BBPRMPM1200M $349

Communications buffer 1 lb. BBPRMOPTPRO $129

Alpha/num for ProModem 11b. BBPRMDISPLAY $ 79

512K ProModem upgrade 11b. BBPRMX512 $99

ProModm1200Applellecard4lbsBBPRMPM1200A $349

ProModm 1 200 PC crd/sftwr4lbs BBPRMPM 1 200B $279

VENTEL

1200bps PC 1 /a card BBVTLHC12C $399

2400bps PC Vi card BBVTLHC24C $599

PRACTICAL PERIPHERALS

1 200bps «A card w/software BBPRPPM12 $179

HARD DISK PC SUBSYSTEMS

Systems include drive, control & data cables & Vz card contrllr

INTERNAL (Include $6 shpg.)
10Mbyte '/a high BBPRIPCSUB10I $399

20Mbyte Va high BBPRIPCSUB20I $559

30Mbyte full high BBPRIPCSUB30I $999

42Mbyte full high BBPRIPCSUB42I$1299

EXTERNAL (Include $10 shpg.)
Drives mounted in a IBM PC styled enclosure
10Mbyte subsystm BBPRIPCSUB10X $599

20Mbytesubsystm BBPRIPCSUB20X $759

30Mbyte subsystm BBPRIPCSUB30X$1 199

42Mbyte subsystm BBPRIPCSUB42X$1499

HARD DISK DRIVES (Sh. wt 5 lbs )
ShugartSA712 12Mbyte B0SHUSA712 $329

Seagate ST225 25Mbyte BBSEAST225 $449

Seagate ST4051 51 Mbyte BBSEAST4051 $1199

Maxtor XT1 140 143Mbyte BBMXTXT1140 $3295

FLOPPY DISK DRIVES (Sh. wt 3 lbs.)

TANDON 55-2 574" DS,40T,Va hi BBTND552 $ 79

Tandon TM1 00-2 574" DS.40T full hiBBTNDTM! 002 $1 29

Surge Suppressor
Noise Filter

$29.95

BBWBRDE115S List: $49.95
(Shipping Weiaht 2 lbs.)

IRVINE

18241 Mc Durmott,
Irvine, CA 92714
(714)660-1411

PRIORITY roNB^i ELECTRONICS

inquiry 265 Mail Your Order To:

ffij 2D

21622 Plummer St., Chatsworth, CA 9131 1-9970
RETAIL (818)709-5464 INDUSTRIAL (818)709-5111

SAN JOSE

542 W. Trimble Rd.,

San Jose, CA95131

(408)946-7010

MINIMUM PREPAID ORDER $25.00. Terms U.S. VISA, MC, BAC, Check, Money Order,
U.S. Funds ONLY. CA residents add 6%, 6 1 /2%, or 7% Sales Tax, depending on your local
rates. Include MINIMUM SHIPPING & HANDLING of $3.00 for the first 3 lbs., plus 50C for
each additional pound (25$ if within Calif.) Plus 25$ per $100.00 value of your order for

insurance. Orders over 70 lbs. sent freight collect Just in case, include your phone
number. Prices subject to change without notice. We will do our best to maintain prices
through February 1986. Credit card orders will be charged appropriate freight We are
not responsible for typographical errors.

PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS and PRIORITY 1 ELECTRONICS are registered service marks of the Heath Group, Ltd. Zipper 2 1 2A. Zipper 2400, Zipper 1 200B and Zipper Modem are
trademarks ot the Heath Group, Ltd. ^^^^^^^^^^_^_

^ ORDER TOLL FREE (800)423-5922 (NOW IN CALIF. TOO!!)

JJJJUUIJlJIJIJUJJlfJ I JtfJJJJJJJJJlJJJ U ' J ' T g'

HPPLE I I T " I/O

ROBOTIC CONTROLLER

UE KNEW THE TRUE ENTHUSIAST UOULO
FIND THIS ARTICLE URY BRCK HERE
IN THE BACK OF BVTE

THE BUKOWSKI ROBOTICS UIP CARD
IS R LOW COST APPLE COflPATIBLE
ROBOTICS CONTROLLER CAAO THAT NAY
BE USED STANO ALONE, OA I N AN APPLE
SLOT AS AN INTELLIGENT PEAIPHERAL
CAAD THE CAAD FEATUAES AN ONBOAAO
65C02 MICROPROCESSOR, UP TO 48 I/O
LINES, 2 THIERS, RND 8K NON UOLATILE
RAM SHIPPED WITH TONS OF SOFTWARE
AND SUPPORT $129 00
BUKOUSKI ROBOTICS
1555 U UNIUERSITV « 105
TEMPE R2 8528 » < 602) 965-6230

LIFETIME WARRANTY

ON ALL APPARAT MANUFACTURED CARDS
AT RAM ONLY CARD

Each card expands AT memory by max-
imum of 2 MEG when using 256K DRAM.
Also uses 64K RAM. FEATURES: Starting
address of any 128K boundary within 16
Meg memory range • Fills memory to 640K
with starting address of 256K or 51 2K •
Split memory option

With 512K RAM installed $249.00

With 128K RAM installed $199.00

j^Appgratlnc.

ADD ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON

1 So. Tamarac Parkway
Denver, Colorado 80237

ORDERING AND DEALER INFORMATION

800/525-7674

Customer Service 303/741 - 1 778

Retail stores in Denver & Chicago

Maxell Floppy Disks

The Mini-Disks
with maximum quality.

Dealer inquiries
invited. C.O.D's
accepted. Call
FREE (800) 235-4137.

PACIFIC EXCHANGES

100 Foothill Blvd.. San Luis
San Luis Obispo. CA 93401.
In Cal. call (800) 592-5935 or
(805)543-1037.

Inquiry 49

Inquiry 23

Inquiry 249

Osborne

A s available only! Very limited quantity.

Important:
Always call to
check availa-
bility before
ordering.

To fix yourself,
or for parts.
Complete, but
known not
working.

Guarante
days. Ma
or refurb
ding on
Exch/
Repair

ed for 30
/ be new
., depen-

avail.
Outright

Main Board OS-1

S79

$79

S139

Main Board Exec.

S159

$139

S299

Battery Pack, 40 Watt

—

—

$49

iDouble Density Kit **
1" Includes board, cablt

, docume

ntation &

$79 I

disk

5" CRT (Grn/White)

S9.95

$19

S29

7" CRT (Amber)

S19

$49

S99

15" CRT, no case

S85

Drive Analog Card

S9.95

S29

S59

Drive Mechanism

S19

S25

$59

Power Supply

$4.95

S24

$29

Keyboard (No enclos.)

S9.95

—

S99

Shipping charged on all orders

Computer Parts Mart 415-493-5930
J200 Park Blvd * Palo Alto * CA 9430(

Quelo® boUUU Devel °P ment

vi/ Tools

68000/68010 Assembler Package

Assembler, linker, object librarian and extensive indexed
typeset manuals.

Conforms to Motorola structured assembler, publication
M68KMASM[4). Macros, cross reference and superb load
map, 31 character symbols.

Optimized for CP/M-80, -86, -68K, MS-DOS, PC-DOS . $ 595

Portable Source in "C" $3000

Lattice® 68000 "C" Cross Compiler

and Quelo 68000/68010 Assembler Package

Optimized for MS-DOS $1095

68200 Assembler Package

Optimized for CP/M-80. MS-DOS, PC-DOS $ 595

68020 Assembler Package

Optimized forCP/M-68K, MS-DOS $ 750

Portable Source in "C" $3500

For more information contact Quelo Inc.

2464 33rd W, Suite #173
Patrick Adams Seattle, WA 98199

Phone (206) 285-2528
COD, Visa, MasterCard Telex II (TWX) 910-333-8171

CP/M, tm DRI. MS-DOS tm Microsoft. Lattice, tm Lattice Inc.

NEC PRINTERS

Pinwriter P-2 $ 485

(w/lnterface & Tractor)

Pinwriter P-3 $ 685

(w/ Interface & Tractor)

Pinwriter P-5 $ 925

(w/lnterface & Cut Sheet Guide)

ELF 360, 350 $ 380

2010/15/30/50 $ 605

3510/15/30/50 $ 960

8810/15/30/50 $1365

Optional Forms Handling

Devices CALL

QUALITY PRINTERS
8415 Cement City Rd.
Brooklyn, Michigan 49230
Phone:517-592-3749

Inquiry 88

Inquiry 275

Inquiry 274

W PC/XT USERS!

M

COGTREE Utilities by

1

Cogitate

S129.95
$199.95

LYNC by Norion-Lamber. . .

#

DATAFLEX by Data Access.

. . Varies

#

RM/COBOL by Ryan/

McFarland

. .Varies

1

Universe by Omnitrend. . .

.S 98.50

#

Blue Mac! by Cogitate. . . .

$599.00

#

CadPower+ by Trilex

$995.00

r

Softext Teaching Aids

. S 95.00

jf

PrintSet by Cogitate

. S 79.95

w

CogiTAPE by Cogitate

. .CALLII

r

Anti-Static Products

. .Varies

M~ Uninterruptible Power

Backups

. . Varies

W TeleVideo Software

. .CALLII

Elite

"A Higher Form of Software"

24000 Telegraph Road

Southfleld, Ml 48034

(313) 352-2345/Telex 386581

VISA/MASTERCARD ACCEPTED

Dealer Inquiries Welcomed

System 501: $1975

DATA ACQUISITION & CONTROL

Call or write for FREE brochure

KEITH LEY

Keithley Data Acquisition
and Control, Inc.

28775 Aurora Road

Cleveland, Ohio 44139

(216) 248-0400 Telex: 98-5469

9-TRACK MAG. TAPE SUBSYSTEM
FOR THE IBM PC/XT/AT

s 4757

For information interchange, backup and archival storage,
IBEX olfers a9-track. IBM format-compatible y A" magnetic
tape subsystem for the IBM PC. featuring:

■ 42 M-Bytes on a single
reel.

■ IBM format 1600 cpi.

■ Software for PC-DOS,
MS-DOS.

nasi

IBEX COMPUTER CORR

20741 Marina Si
Chaiswoiih.CA 91311
<818) 709-8100
TWX 910-493-2071

Inquiry 73

Inquiry 184

Inquiry 160

FREE DIGITAL WATCH

With the purchase of any
disk drive in this issue, we'll ■
include a 7 melody alarm,
Quartz chronograph, digital j
watch... absolutely FREE
{limit one per customer)!

BORLAND
jE LOWOUT j,

SIDEKICK 1.5 c/p $ 27.75

SIDEKICK 1.5 nc/p . . . '42.99
SIDEKICK MACnc/p .. *42.99

• TURBO PASCAL 3.0 nc/p *35.33

• SUPERKEY 1.1 nc/p . . $ 35.33

NEW!

• TRAVELING
SIDEKICK nc/p .

•TURBO
LIGHTNING nc/p

• REFLEX nc/p . .

$39.97

*55.00
$55.00

II I I I I I I I M II I I I I I 1 I I I 1 I I M

COMPONENTS

Quality Japanese mfg. from
companies like HITACHI,
TOSHIBA and FUJITSU.

•256K DRAMS

Set of 9 150ns . . . . '^D.HD

•64K DRAMS ,_„

Set of 9 150ns M.OD

• 8087-3 $ 99.00

•8087-2 $ 129.60

• 80287 $178.00

• 27128 *2.90

• 70128 replaces 8088 .... $ 14.75

•27256 *4.50

•2764 *1.98

•4128 *2.97

mm

NOVATION
SMARTCAT PLUS

Auto answer/Auto dial 1200 & 0-300 bps.
Hayes™ (AT) compatible. Includes MITE™
communication software.
Internal or $OAQ OK

external model OUOi^v

I I^^^^^^^^^^^T ^^^^^^^m^

ACCESSORIES

KEYBOARDS

FULLY IBM™ and KEYTRONICS™ COMPATIBLE

• 5150 style $ 78

• 5151 style $ 98

REPLACEMENT HARD DISK DRIVES

• 13MB Vt ht . . *296.00

• 25MB Viht '429.00

• 38MB full ht.Seagatevoicecoil *833.00

• 51MB Fullht.SeagatevoicecoM »1044.00

BOARD PRODUCTS

• Western Digital PC/AT type Hard/Floppy cont, . . '297.00

• MULTITECH 2 Drive PC floppy controller ...... ,'45.85

• MULTITECH 4 drive PC floppy controller '58.50

• MULTITECH multi.board(ASTsixpackcomp) .'119.45

• AST sixpack+ «223.00

• AST Advantage 128K '384.00

• MULTITECH colorboard '98.87

• HERCULES colorboard '144.00

• HERCULES graphics board '287.00

• QUADRAM Quadboard w/64K '197.00

• MULTITECH 384K mem. exp. board (empty) . . . .'56.00

MODEMS

• SM ARTE AM 103/212A Hayes" comp '184.00

• NOVATION 2400 Professional w/o software .... '498.00

• NOVATION 2400 with MS-DOS or

Macintosh software '548.00

• HAYES 1200B w/Smartcom II . . . '349.00

MONITORS

• TAXAN 400 medium resolution RGB '253.00

• AMDEK 300G 12" Green '118.96

• TATUNG 12" Hi Resolution Amber '119.75

• TATUNG 14" Hi Resolution RGB color .... '444.50

PC POWER SUPPLIES

• 150 WATT '99.00

FLOPPY'

DRIVES PC COMPATIBLE
• PANASONIC V 2 Ht

^88

• APPLE II Compatible, inc. cable . . $ 97.75

1 ITTTTTTTTTTT i r tt iTTTTTTTTTTTTT

HARD DRIVES

COMPLETE INTERNAL SYSTEMS

Includes drive, controller card, cablesand install procedures.

Capacities listed are unformatted. We sell only the

finest drivesfrom Seagate, Mitsubishi, and others guaranteed

to meet or exceed original manufacturer's specifications.

•13MB/ 2 Ht $ 369

•25MB %Ht $ 469

•38MB Full Ht. SEAGATE Voice Coil . . $ 899
•51MB Full Ht. SEAGATE Voice Coil . $ 1098

If

i 1 1 i i i i i i i i i i 1 1

i i ( i 1 1 t i i i i i i i i i i

FUJI DISK EXPLOSION

Certified
Available
In Perfecl
With slee\
TYPE

Quality £
in your c
Data" 1 D
/es, labels
1-19

V«" Bulk
hoice of
al-N-Flle
andw/p
20-99

Disks mam
aackaging.
box.

abs. Priced
100-499

f actured by

Der box of 1C
500-999

FUJI.
1000 +

SS/DD
DS/DD

10.75
13.50

9.97
12.67

9.57
11.97

9.23
11.45

8.99
10.99

With sleeves, labels and w/p tabs. Priced per box of 10.
TYPE 1-19 20-99 100-499 500-999 1000 +

DS/DD 10.99 10.37 9.97 9.60 9.26

DS/DD Bulk w/o box, sleeves, labels or w/p tabs

Price each, in increments of 50 only, poly bagged.

50

100-450

500-950

1000-4950

5000 +

.96

.89

.84

.80

.77

unal condition with
e accept

hecks, per

dwhen check clears

WORLDWIDE ACCESS

Everybody hates us but our customers.

6311-L DeSoto, WOODLAND HILLS, CA 91367

HOURS: 8:30 AM-S:30PM PACIFIC TIME, MONDAY-FRIDAY

IF YOU DON'T SEE IT, CALL!

We have virtually any product available at
the best pricing. Space limits us to only a
fraction of what we sell. Call us for a quote
and delivery information. If we don't have
it. we'll get it for you!

** TURBO PASCAL USERS**

Make Your Software

Operate like SIDEKICK!

TURBO_TASK will make your program
resident just like SIDEKICX

Include this procedure in your code and rcccnpile, When you call
T\JMC_TA5K your progran will be automatically installed tn memory and
can then be invoked at any time by pressing a predefined key. The user
can pop in and out o£ your software at will without disturbing any
program in operation. Up to 16 programs can uee Turbojrask'at the
same time. Each will have it6 own "invoke key" aitd independent window,

*** ALSO INCLUDED ***

RAM_PAGE changes the Display
Buffer Address

MHJUCC allows you to create text pages (up to 2SS x 255 each) in
the~heap. It redirects TP to treat any selected page as if it were the
actual screen. Write, Writeln, Clrscr, InsLine, DelLine, GotoXY will
all work in the "Bam Page" that you created. Use TP's Window procedure
along with R/VM_V1EW to display any portion of the Rain Paqe on the
screen. Hits "window" will be kept up to date with its Ram Page.

TURBO_LINKER breaks the 64k Code
Segment Barrier

TURSOLir.KER will convert a se t o £ your procedures into a nodule
that can be loaded into the heap at run time. These procedures will
operate in the heap thus freeing space in the code segnent for the
main prograa. Supports up to 16 nodules with 64 procedures or funct-
ions each. Does not require any restructuring of your code. Also
eliminates the need to recompile debugged routines.

All These Utilities -ONLY $70

TANGENT TECHNOLOGIES

180 N. Kacker, Suite 350, Chicago, IL 60606

(512) 263-002* KC/V15A

Supports version 3.0 for PC-DOS and J1S-OOS

Turbo Pascal and Sidekick are trademarks of Borland Intl.

FREE SOFTWARE

FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

User Group Software isn't copyrighted, so no fees to
pay! 1000's of CP/M and IBM software programs in
.COM and source code to copy yourself! Games,
business, utilities! All FREE!

Rent

IBMPC-SIG 1-390 Disksldes 410.

IBMPC-BLUE 1-154 Disksldes 175.

SIG/M UG 1-246 Disksides 160.

45.
25.
65.
65.
100.

Buy
850.
475.
675.
250.
100.
200.
200.
200.

CP/M UG 1-92 Disksides

PICO NET 1-34 Disksides

KAYPRO UG 1-54 Disksides ....

EPSON UG 1-52 Disksides

Commodore CBM 1-93 Disksides
Public Domain User Group Catalog Disk $5 pp.

(payment in advance, please)
Rental is for 7 days after receipt, 3 days grace to

return. Use a credit card, no disk deposit.

Shipping, handling & insurance $9.50 per library.

(619) 941-0925 Orders & Technical (9 to 5)

(619) 727-1015 24 Hr. 3 Min. Info Recording

Have your credit card ready!

National Public Domain Software

1533 Avohill Dr. ^^ m

Vista, CA 92083

800-621-5460 ^^^

then dial *.. cv

782-542 AMEX

BBB

RS-422

Communications Board

• For IBM-PC/AT/XT and

compatibles

• Dual RS-422 serial interface

• Programmable to 56k baud

• Differential drivers to 4000 ft.

$345.00
QUA TECH, INC.

478 E. Exchange St. Akron OH 44304
(216) 434-3154 TLX: 5101012726

$

Inquiry 3I9

Inquiry 238

Inquiry 272

Serial 4f llllllll I P^ Parallel

Convert What You Have
To What You Want!

• RS232 Serial

• 8 Baud Rates

• Latched Outputs

• Centronics Parallel
' Handshake Signals
' Compact 3!£ x 4% x 1%

No longer will your peripheral choices be limited by the type
ol port you have available! Our new High Performance 700
Series Converters provide the missing link. Based on the
latest In CMOS technology, these units feature full baud
rate selection to 19.2K, with handshake signals to maximize
transfer efficiency. Detailed documentation allows
simplified installation. Order the Model 770 (Ser/Par) or
Model 775 (Par/Ser) Today!

iinEtfn

only J 89. S

2734-C Johnson Dr.

Post Office Box 37t7

Venlura, California 93006

Connector Option iio.00
CA Residents 8% tax
UPS Shipping 13 00

CALL (805) 658-7466 or 658-7467
€3 For FAST Delivery [

DATA ACQUISITION TO GO

INTERFACE FOR ANY COMPUTER

FREE IBM SOFTWARE

Connects via RS-232. Fully IBM com-
patible. Built-in BASIC. Stand alone
capability. Expandable. Battery
Option. Basic system: 16 ch. 12 bit
A/D, 2 ch. D/A, 32 bit Digital I/O.
Expansion boards available. Direct
Bus units for many computers.

(201) 299-1615
P.O. Box 246, Morris Plains, N J 07950

ELEXOR

BULK DISKETTES

BY-

NASHUA

#75

*

each
(Ti\ ino

5V«" DS/DD with hub ring and Tyvek sleeve, bulk

packaged, no labels, factory warrantee^ Shipping

extra For quantity 50.. add 10c each

Get the same low price our high-volume

duplication customers get!

CALL TOLL FREE

1-800-321-4668

in Colorado, 303-234-0871
VISA. MASTERCARD. OR COD ACCEPTED

ALF

1315-F Nelson St
Denver, CO 80215

Inquiry 332

Inquiry 1 29

Inquiry 13

FASTER SCREEN WRITING,.

just the beginning
for a new type of program:

amsi-

CONSOLE™

The Integrated Console Utility™

As reviewed in Lotus June 85 pg 8:
"All the little things IBM forgot". For
1HM-PC, AT & clones. Shareware
disk $25 or 4i)0p Manual (w/elip case)
& disk $75.

HERSEY MICRO CONSULTING, INC.

Box 8276J, Ann Arbor, MI 48107
(313) 994-3259 x525 VISA>MC

Bjfe]

m Worn

IHpTTJUiQOU^UW^

^HnHljSJ

Vfeature

for

BIG SB! 8

User-Transparent

Security Features Included.

Golden

Bow Systems

V%~

S80 - S120

>:V 619/298-9349

Add S3 lor Shipping

/' \ P.O. Box 3039

handling

j W \ San Diego. C A 92103

California resident

add 6' ; sales lax

WAVEFORM

SYNTHESIZER

• For IBM-PC/XT/AT and
compatibles

• Generates user-definable signal

• Up to 2000 points per envelope

$795.00
QUA TECH, INC.

478 E. Exchange St. Akron OH 44304
(216)434-3154 TLX: 5101012726

®

Inquiry 156

Inquiry I48

Inquiry 273

Collector ^Edition

BYTE COVERS

The Byte covers shown below are available as beautiful Collector Edition Prints.
Each full color print is 1 1 in. x 14 in., including a 1 1/2 in. border, and is part of an
edition strictly limited to 500 prints. Each print is faithfully reproduced from the
original painting on museum quality acid-free paper, and is personally inspected,
signed and numbered by the artist, Robert Tinney. A Certificate of Authenticity
accompanies each print attesting to its quality and limited number.

Collector Edition Prints are carefully packaged flat to avoid bending, and are •
shipped UPS. The price of each print is $30, plus $3 per shipment for postage and
handling ($8 overseas). If four or more prints are ordered, the price of each print
is only $25.

To order yourown favorite Byte cover as a beautiful Collector Edition Print, use
the convenient coupon below. Visa or MasterCard orders may call 1-504-272-7266.

Jf

1

!)}

:r :;

nm

#

17

Winter Computing

$

30

#18 Seventeen Seventy-Six $30

#13 Future Computers? $30

wmm^mmmmmmm m mm

#14 Smalltalk $30

SOLD OUT

#9 Software Piracy $30

U*l^^^ip -Ljl

wSSf » MM_jjA aa ^JjE|^

#10 Programming Route $30

H

M

' I '

V ■

#19 Crystal Ball $30

#20 Digital Arts $30

#15 Software $30

#11

Forth

$30

#16 Chip Building $30

#12 Future Past $30

Send me the following Prints ($30 ea., or $25 ea. for 4 or more). □ I have enclosed check or money order. □ Please send free color brochure. Mail tn 'S coupon to:

QTY. TITLE & PRINT NO. AMOUNT □ Visa □ MasterCard fObert tinney graphics

$ Card No. _ = ^^ = 1864 N. Pamela Drive

$ Exp. Date: 1^^^ Baton Rouge, LA

$ SHIP MY PRINTS TO: lFnZT>*-+^

— $ Name: _^

$ Address: :

_ City:

State: Zip:

postage & handling $3.00 (Overseas $8.00) $^
TOTAL $ _

The Diversified P t roup

OUR GUARANTEE

We Will Undersell All Competitor's On Instock Items
Call (800) 523-1041 With Your Lowest Quote

FEBRUARY CLEARANCE

64K MEMORY UPGRADE

150ns

1 Set
10 Sets
100 Sets

$8.95
8.45 ea.
7.95 ea.

2 Year Warranty
(prices subject to change)

10 MEG HARD DISK

Controller & Cables Included
1 Year Warranty

1 for $369.95
5 for $359.95 ea.

IRWIN TAPE BACKUP

10 Meg Internal

Low Power

1 for $485.95

5 for $465.95 ea.

BMC MONITOR

12 AUW / 80 Column

12" Green Composite

1 for $59.95

5 for $49.95 e&

BMC 9191
w/sound, color composite $179.95

IBM PC

(original)

256K Memory / Keyboard
Bare Bone
$1319.95

SERVICE
CONTRACTS
AVAILABLE

COMPUSERVE

Start Up Kit
$19.95

VUTEK COLOR CARD

IBM Compatible w/Par & Ser Ports
$129.95

MULTIFUNCTION

SixPak Compatible

Parallel, Serial, Game Ports

OK exp. 384K w/Software

$109.95

8087-2

8 MHZ

For AT&T, and

Compaq Deskpro

$124.95

HARD DISK DRIVESh H "DISK I DRIVES 1 ! i I ! h

All Haid Disks Come With: 1 Yr. Wairanty, Cables,
Controller and are Formatted

QTY. 1 QTY. 5

S369.95 $359.95

489.95 469.95

789.95 779.95

10 Megabyte w/Controller
20 Megabyte w/Controller
30 Megabyte w/Controller

For 1/2 Height Drives add $50

Most Hard Disks are Shugart, Microsci, CMI, Rodine

Call for Others

BERNOULLI BOX

10 Meg
20 Meg

S1779.95
2399.95

TAPE BACK-UP BY IRWIN

D Meg Internal Vi Height,

Low Power $495.95 $485.95

10 Meg External Back-up 635.95 615.95

DISK DRIVE CONTROLLERS

Western Digital Hard Disk Cont. $179.95
Adaptec Hard Disk Cont. 199.95 —

DG Hard Disk Cont. 139.95 -

MPI B-52

• Tandon Compatible • 360K
Double Side/Double Density

2 for $137.00

5V4" DISK DRIVES

Teac 55B

Epson

IBM "Logo" Drives

Tandon TM100-2

MPI (Tandon Compatible)

AT 360K w/whlteface

QTY. 1 QTY. 5

S 89.95 S 89.95

89.95 86.95

119.95
89.95
69.95

109.95

109.95
87.95
69.95

DISK DRIVE CONTROLLERS

IBM (Original) Controller
IBM Compatible Controler

$ 99.95
59.95 -

LETTER QUALITY - DOT MATRIX

OK I DATA

ML182P, 120 cps, Parallel
ML182S, 120 cps, Serial
ML192P, 160 cps, w/NLQ
ML192S, 160 cps, Serial
ML193P, 15" Carriage, 160 cps, w/NLQ
ML193S, 15" Carriage, 160 cps, Serial
ML84P, 15" Carriage, 200 cps
ML84S, 15" Carriage, 200 cps, Serial

$229.95
309.95
339.95
439.95
539.95
639.95
749.95
859.95

EPSON -

Call for Availability

We also carry Juki, oynax, Toshiba, Star,

Panasonic, NEC, Brother

We Will Also Beal All Competitors Prices on These Too.

VISA

No Surcharge on Credit Cards

jgBBL,

AMDEK

300G Composite Green
300A Composite Amber
310A Monochrome Amber

TAXAN

620 (640 x 200)
630 (640 x 400)
640 (720 x 400)

$124.95
134.95
159.95

$399.95
499.95
549.95

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

HX12, 640x200 Dot Pitch .31
HX12E, 640x350 Dot Pitch .28
SR12, 640x400 Dot Pitch .31
SR12P. 640x480 Dot Pitch .26
HX-9, 640x350 Dot Pitch .28
MAX12E, 720x350

$442.95
517.95
573.95
787.95
432.95
169.95

DIVERSIFIED GROUP

100 Hl-Res Green 18MHZ Composlt 80 col. S 79.95
100 Hl-Res Amber 18MHZ Compos. 80 col. 89.95
200 Hl-Res Green 20MHZ Mono. 80 col. 89.95

200 Hl-Res Amber 20MHZ Mono. 80 col. 99.95
DG Monitors come with 1 Year Warranty

TERMS:

P.O.'s from Government Institutes,

Universities, Fortune 1000

C.O.D.'s w/Guarantee, Visa, MC, MO,

Cashier's Check, Cash. Please Call for Shipping:

Approx. system S25, printers & monitors $15.

Minimum Shipping S4.50

We Ship Federal Express, UPS, U.S. Mail

430 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

The Diversified Group

MAIL ORDERS TO:
8726 S. Sepulveda, Suite A132, Los Angeles, CA 90045

WAREHOUSE: 4732 Rosecrans, Hawthorne, CA 90250

TOLL FREE ORDER LINE

(800) 523-1041

INSIDE CALIFORNIA

(213) 675-0717

Inquiry 123

The Diversified G roup

The DG PC Series computers offers the maximum alternatives in the PC XT compatible market.
Alternatives which exceed current PC XT configurations.

Standard features on all DG PC Series computers include:

• Full compatibility with IBM PC XT® machines

• 640K bytes of parity checked memory, 8 slots

• 150 watt power supply • Keytronics 5150 compatible keyboard

• 1 Full Year Warranty on Parts and Labor.

• 4 Layer Motherboard

DG-PC

BASE UNIT

System Unit
640K on Board
One 360K Drives

w/Controller

150 Watt
Power Supply

$699.95

SYSTEM

System Unit
640K on Board
Two 360K Drives
150 watt pwr sply
Hi-Res Green Mon
w/lnterface Card

$847.95

AT

System Unit

80286 Microprocessor

512K Memory

1.2 Meg Floppy

AT Type Keyboard

XT-
System Unit
640K on Board
One 360K Drive
10Meg w/150 watt
Monochrome Mon

Runs PC, XT & AT Sftwr Hercules comp. Mono Card
$1889.95 $1195.95

20 Day Trial Period 1 100% Credit Towards IBM PC
All DG Systems are fully IBM Compatible w/1 Year Warranty

COMPAQ

DESKPRO

Model I $1724.95

Model II 2049.95

Model III 3549.95

PORTABLE

Two 360K Drives,

256K

$1987.95

286

Deskpro 286 $3295.95

Portable 286 3295.95

PORTABLE + DG

One 360K Drive, 256K

10 Meg Hard Disk

$2389.95

IBM

Some Compaqs have been Enhanced by The Diversified Group
All Come with 1 Year Warranty through The Diversified Group

IBM PC
One 360K Dr, 256K $1389.95
Two 360K Dr, 256K 1492.95

IBM XT

One 360K Drive & 10 Meg Drive

$2197.95

IBM AT

Unenhanced $3395.95

Enhanced 3995.95

IBM SYSTEM

PC-XT

with 10 Meg

One 360K Drive,

Hercules Color

Compatible Card

Hi-Res Green Monitor

Dos 2.1

$2392.95

EXEAMSION CARPS

ASTSIxPac+ w/OK 2 Yr War

S209.95

MF-100 SixPac Compatible plus Gameport

Par., Ser., Game, 0K-384K, Software

Clock Calendar, 2 Year Warranty S109.95

AST Advantage w/1.5 Megabyte of Memory
Parallel & Serial Ports S497.95

HAYES

12008 w/Smarlcom I $356.95
1200 External $385.95 2400 External S599.95

PROMETHEUS

Pro 1200 Ex. $289.95 Pro 1200B Int. $309.95

KEMORY! ! h rl llfiWtiACCESSDfifES

B4K SETS

All Upgrades Carry a 2 Year Warranty

Nine 4164, 150ns $8.95

10 Sets $8.45 ea. 100 Sets S7.95

128K SETS 25BK SETS

Nine, 4128
25 Sets

S39.95 9, 41256, 200ns S28.95
32.95 ea. 25 Sets 27.95 ea.

80287

5MHZ for AT & Deskpro

$189.95

8087-3

5MHZ Math Co-Processor
for IBMPC
$109.95

8087-2

8MHZ Math Co-Processor

lor AT*T,Compaq,Deskpro

$124.95

A-B SWITCH BOXES

Parallel 2 pos. $54.95 Serial 2 pos. $64.95

DISKETTES

Polaroid Dbt/Dbl 5 Year Warranty
1 bx. $12.95 10 bxs. $11.95 100 bxs. $9.95

KEYTRONICS KEYBOARDS

5153 Touch Pad $289.95
5150 Standard $169.95 5151 Deluxe $179.95

BELKIN CABLES

6 foot Shielded
Par. $14.95 IBMPC to Modem$16.95

r^HDEO

!i -,

HERCULES COMPATIBLE

Color Graphics wfparallel Port 2 Yr. War. S104.9S

Monochrome Graphics w/Par Port 119.95

EVEREX

The Edge Color/Mono $269.95

The Graphics Edge 269.95

IBM

IBM Monochrome w/Para(lel Port $219.95

IBM Color Card w/Parallel Port 214.95

PARADISE

Modular Graphics Card $259.95

Multi Display 219.95

SIGMA

Color 400 Board

TERMS:
P.O.'s from Government Institutes,

Universities, Fortune 1DDD

C.Q.D.'s w/Guarantee, Visa, MC, MO,

Cashier's Check, Cash. Please Call for Shipping:

Approx. system $25, printers & monitors $15.

Minimum Shipping $4.50

We Ship Federal Express, UPS, U.S. Mall

No Surcharge on Credit Cards

The Diversified Group

MAIL ORDERS TO: Ji££-
8726 S. Sepulveda, Suite A132, Los Angeles, CA 90045

WAREHOUSE: 4732 Rosecrans, Hawthorne, CA 90250

TOLL FREE ORDER LINE

(800) 523-1041

INSIDE CALIFORNIA

(213) 675-0717

Inquiry I23

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 431

What the world really needs

is a 69 cent

Double Sided, Double Density Diskette

with a LIFETIME WARRANTY!

And DISK WORLD! has it.

Introducing Super Star Diskettes:

the high quality diskette with

the lowest price

and the best LIFETIME WARRANTY!

In the course of selling more than a million diskettes
every month, we've learned something: higher prices don't
necessarily mean higher quality.

In fact, we've found that a good diskette manufacturer
simply manufactures a good diskette... no matter what
they charge for it. (By way of example, consider that none
of the brands that we carry has a return rate of greater than
1/1.000th of 1 percent!)

In other words, when people buy a more expensive
diskette, they aren't necessarily buying higher quality.

The extra money might be going toward flashier adver-
tising, snazzier packaging or simply higher profits.

But the extra money in a higher price isn't buying better
quality.

All of the good manufacturers put out a good diskette.

Period.

How to cut diskette prices
. . . without cutting quality.

Now this discovery posed a dilemma: how to cut the
price of diskettes without lowering the quality.

There are about 85 companies claiming to be "diskette"
manufacturers.

Trouble is, most of them aren't manufacturers.

Rather they are fabricators or marketers, taking other
company's components, possibly doing one or more steps
of the processing themselves and pasting their labels on
the finished product.

The new IBM diskettes, for example, are one of these.
SoarelBM5'/4"diskettes.SameforDYSAN.Polaroidand
many, many otherfamiliardiskette brand names. Each of
these diskettes is manufactured in whole or in part by
another company!

So, we decided to act fust like the big guys. That's how
we would cut diskette prices. ..without lowering the
quality.

We would go out and find smaller companies to manu-
facture a diskette to our specifications... specifications
which are higher than most. ..and simply create our own
"name brand" diskette.

Name brand diskettes that offered high quality at low
prices.

FRAUD ALERT!

Please be careful!

A lot of the "no-name" diskettes flooding the
market at prices of less than $1 .00 are what we
in the industry call "floor sweepings."

In other words, they're garbage... stuff that
six months ago, no self-respecting manufac-
turer would have sold.

But times got tough and some people's
scruplesgota little lost in desperation. . .and so
a lot of computer users are getting some really
bad disks. . .and that isn't bargain at all.

So, when the price seems too good to be
vtrue... like 39 cents, be careful.. .very careful!

HOURS:
Human: 8AM-6PM CentralTime, Monday through Friday

1 SUPER 1
STAR ■

■ diskettes!

1 * ( i

5V4" 1

W sv/

SSDD

DSDD

.55 ea.

1 .69 ea.

Qty.50 1

1 Qty.50

Super Star diskettes are sold in multiples of 50 only. Diskettes are
shipped with white Tyvec sleeves, reinforced hubs, user ID labels
and write-protect tabs.

Boy, did we get lucky. Our Super Star

Diskettes are the same ones you've been

using for years. . .without knowing it.

In our search for the low priced, high quality diskette of
our dreams, we found something even more interesting.'

We found that there are several manufacturers who
don't give a hoot about the consumer market for their
diskettes. They don't spend millions of dollars in advertis-
ing trying to get you. the computer user, to use their
diskettes.

Instead, they concentrate their efforts on turning out the
highest quality diskettes they can. .because they sell
them to the software publishers, computer manufacturers
and other folks who (in turn) put their name on them . . .and
sell them for much higher prices to you!

After all, when asoftware publisher or computer manu-
facturer or diskette marketer puts their name on a diskette,
they want it to work time after time, everytime. (Especially
software publishers who have the nasty habit of copy-
protecting their originals!)

HOW TO ORDER:

ORDERS ONLY:

1-800-621-6827

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140)

INQUIRIES:

1-312-256-7140

FOR FASTEST SERVICE, USE NO-COST MCI MAIL:

Our address is DISKORDER. It's a FREE MCI MAIL

letter. No charge to you. (Situation permitting, we'll

ship these orders in 24 hours or less.)

SHIPPING: 5'A" & 3%" DISKETTES— Add $3.00 per each
100 or fewer diskettes. OTHER ITEMS: Add shipping charges
as shown in addition to other shipping charges. PAYMENT:
VISA, MASTERCARD and Prepaid orders accepted. COO OR-
0ERS: Add additional $5.00 special handling charge. AP0,
FP0, AK, HI & PR ORDERS: Include shipping charges as
shown and additional 5% of total order amount to cover PAL
and insurance. We ship only to United States addresses, except
for those listed above. TAXES: Illinois residents, add 7%
sales tax.

MINIMUM ORDER: $35.00.

Super Star Diskettes. You already know

how good they are. Now you can buy

them... cheap.

Well, that's the story.

Super Star diskettes don't roll off the boat from Pago-
Pago or emerge from a basement plant just east of
Nowhere.

Super Star diskettes have been around for years. . and
you've used them for years as copy-protected software
originals, unprotected originals. Sometimes, depending
on which computer you own. the system master may have
been on a Super Star diskette. And maybe more than once,
you've bought a box or two or more of Super Star diskettes
without knowing it. They just had some "big" company's
name on them.

Super Star Diskettes are good. So good that a lot of
major software publishers, computer manufacturers and
other diskette marketers buy them in the tens or hundreds
of thousands.

We buy them in the millions.

And than we sell them to you.

Cheap.

When every little bit counts,
it's Super Star Diskettes.

You've used them a hundred times... under different
names.

Now, you can buy the real McCoy, the same diskette that
major software publishers, computer manufacturers and
diskette marketers buy.. .and call their own.

We simply charge less.

DISK WORLD!, INC.

Super Special!

Store 75 diskettes lor only $5.95!

Yep, that's right: order 50
SuperStardiskettes, add 55.95
and we'll include a Media Prod-
ucts DISK MINDER II... a well
made unit that we're impressed
with.

It holds 75 diskettes
securely and looks nice too 1

The Super Star
LIFETIME WARRANTY!

Super Star Diskettes are unconditionally warranted
against defects in original material and workmanship
so long as owned by the original purchaser. Returns
are simple: just send the defective diskettes with proof
of purchase, postage-paid by you with a short expla-
nation of the problem, and we'll send you the replace-
ments. (Incidentally, coffee stained diskettes and
diskettes with staples driven through them don't
qualify as "defective".)

WE WILL MEET OR BEAT ANY NATIONALLY

ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AN0 QUANTITIES

SUBJECT TO THE SAME TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

629 Green Bay Road
Wilmette, Illinois 60091

432 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry I2l

KODAK
DISKETTES:

Discover the
future today!

C^Kodak

M

Di>

M

Dia

KODAK
THE NAME
SAYS IT ALL.

Take a Century of experience in coating
products like photo film, add two brand-
new state-of-the-art plants for manufactur-
ing diskettes and you have something new:
KODAK diskettes, a taste of the future.

Kodak spends more than three million
dollars a day in research and development.
They have more than 120,000 employees
and manufacture and market more than
30,000 products.

But George Eastman
said it best:

George Eastman, the founder of Eastman
Kodak and the man who made it possible
for everyone to have a family album ex-
pressed Kodak's philosophy almost a cen-
tury ago: make "good goods!"

That's why we're so pleased to add
KODAK diskettes to our line.
Great quality,
great value!

For those of you who want a "brand
name" diskette with top-of-the-line quali-
ty.. .without paying through the nose, the
choice is simple: KODAK.

Of course, there's a
LIFETIME WARRANTY!

Except as noted, all KODAK diskettes are
packed in boxes of ten with Tyvec sleeves,
user ID labels and write-protect tabs. Bulk
packed diskettes are labelled as KODAK
diskettes and are packed in 4 bundles of 25
diskettes with Tyvec sleeves, user ID labels
and write-protect tabs.

Qty. Qty. Qty.
20-40 60+ 100

5.25" SSDD. . , $1.11 ea. $1.01 ea.
5.25" DSDD. . $1.46 ea. $1.33 ea.
5.25" DSDD-HD $3.47 ea. $3.15 ea.

3.5" KODAK DISKETTES
3.50" SSDD... $2.06 ea. $1.87 ea.
3.50" DSDD ... $2.73 ea. $2.48 ea.

KODAK LABELLED

BULK DISKETTES

5.25" SSDD in package of 100 $ .93

5.25" DSDD in package of 100 $1 .24

FOR ORDERS ONLY: INFORMATIONS

1-800-621-6827 inquiries:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-312-256-7140
HOURS: 8AM-5PM Central Time. Monday-Friday
WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE
ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES!

DISK WORLD!. Inc.

629 Green Bay Road • Wilmette. Illinois 60091

FANTASTIC LOW PRICES ON

BASF >.

W QUALIMETRIC fei)
DISKETTES!

LIFETIME WARRANTY!

Buy in bulk and save. 150 to the carton with envelopes, write-
protect tabs and user ID labels. Boxed product is the same, except
in cardboard boxes of 10.

Qty. 50 Qtv.150

5.25" SSDD 83ea .80 ea.

5.25" DSDD .94 ea. .92 ea.

5.25"DSDD-HD 2.13 ea. N/A

5.25" SSDD-96TPI .94 ea. N/A

5.25" DSDD-96TPI 1.06 ea. N/A

3.50SSDD-135TPI 1.84 ea. 1.68 ea.

3.50DSDD-135TPI 2.40 ea. 2.28 ea.

NOTE: 3.50" diskettes in Quantity 50 are packed in plastic
library cases. That's why they seem to be a better buy. But there
are only 5 diskettes to a case. . .so the bulk diskettes are really a
better deal, unless you like expensive little library cases.

for orders only: information &

1-800-621-6827 inquiries:

(in Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-312-256-7140
HOURS: 8AM-6PM Central Time, Monday-Friday
WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE
ON THE SAME PRODUCTS AND QUANTITIES!

11 1 S K Authorized Reseller

lSI\jr\ Information Processing " RASF

WORLD! "~

DISK WORLD!

Ordering & Shipping
Instructions

Shipping: 5W" & 3.5" DISKETTES— Add S3.00 per each 100 or
fewer diskettes. Other Items: Add shipping charges as shown in
addition to other shipping charges. Payment:VISA and MASTER-
CARD accepted. COO Orders: Add additional $5.00Special Han-
dling charge. APO, FPO. AK, HI & PR Orders; Include shipping
charges as shown and additional 5% of total order amount to
cover PAL and insurance. Taxes: Illinois residents only, add 7%
sales tax.

Prices subject to change without notice.
This ad supercedes all other ads.

Not responsible for typographical errors.
MINIMUM TOTAL ORDER: $35.00

FOR ORDERS ONLY:

1-800-621-6827

n Illinois: 1-312-256-7140)

INFORMATION &
INQUIRIES:

1-312-256-7140

HOURS: 8AM-6PM Central Time

Monday-Friday

WE WILL BEATANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS ANO QUANTITIES!

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bay Road • Wilmette. Illinois 60091

DISK
WORLD!

ATHANA

DISKETTES
The great unknown!

U U Q,y 5 ° 5WDSDD- f *T O* 50

You've used these diskettes hundreds of
times... as copy-protected originals on some of
the most popular software packages. They're
packed in poly-bags of 25 with Tyvek sleeves,
reinforced hubs, user identification labels and
write-protect tabs.

LIFETIME WARRANTY!

SOFT SECTOR ONLY! Sold in multiples
of 50 only.
for orders only: information &

1-800-621-6827 inquiries:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-312-256-7140
HOURS": 8AM-6PM Central Time, Monday-Friday
WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE
ON THE SAME PRODUCTS ANO QUANTITIES!
DISK WORLD!, Inc.
629 Green Bay Road • Wilmette, Illinois 60091

Fj>

Now, the lowest

\-V-'

prices ever on

W-. m .

y 3M diskettes.

' -~~f

/ LIFETIME WARRANTY!

All 3M diskettes are factory packed in boxes of 10 and come
with Tyvec sleeves, user ID labels and write-protect tabs.

Qty. 20-40 Qty. 50+
5.25" SSDD SL20ea. S1.09 ea
5.25" DSDD S1.70 ea. S1.54 ea
5.25" SSDD-96TPI S2.18 ea. S1.98 ea

5.25" DSDD S2.73ea. S2.48 ea
5.25" DSDD-HD S3.45ea. S3.14 ea
3.50" SSDD S2.18ea. S1.98 ea
3.50" DSDD S3.09ea. S2.81 ea

3M DATA CARTRIDGES

(Sold 10 to a carton only.)

(Add S5.00 shipping charges for cartridges')

DC1000 S12.43 ea

DC300XLP S19.09 ea

DC600A S20.30 ea

DISK
WORLD!

Authorized Distributor
Information Processing
Products

DISK
WORLD!

DISK
WORLD!

PRINTER
RIBBONS:

at

extraordinary
prices!

Brand new ribbons, manufactured to Original Equipment
Manufacturer's specifications, in housings. (Not re-inked or
spools only.)

LIFETIME WARRANTY!

Epson MX-70/80 . . $2.70 ea. + 25e Shpng.
Epson MX-100 . . . .$4.08 ea. + 25c Shpng.
OkidataMicro83. . $1.37 ea. + 25e Shpng.
Okidata Micro84 . . $2.98 ea. + 25C Shpng.

FOR ORDERS ONLY: INFORMATION*

1-800-621-6827 inquiries:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-312-256-7140

HOURS: 8AM-6PM Central Time, Monday-Friday

WE WILL BEATANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS ANO QUANTITIES!

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bay Road • Wilmette, Illinois 60091

DISK
WORLD!

DISKETTE
STORAGE CASES

AMARAY MEDIA-MATE 50: A REVOLUTION
^* IN DISKETTE STORAGE

fMPL Every once in a while, someone takes the

ttjNpWv simple and makes it elegant! This unit holds

Wfk 50 5'/4" diskettes, has grooves for easy

^^ -.^r stacking, inside nipples to keep diskettes

from slipping and severa 1 other features. We

like it! CQ CQ + $2.00

<4>9.U9 ea. Shpng.

DISKETTE 70 STORAGE: STILL A GREAT BUY.

Dust-free storage for 70 5'/4" diskettes.
Six dividers included. An excellent value.

CQ QK + S3.°0
DISK CADDIES W-W Shpng
The original flip-up holder for 10 W
"diskettes. Beige or grey only.flJ-J CC

t 20c Shpng

for orders only: information &

1-800-621-6827 inquiries:

(In Illinois: 1-312-256-7140) 1-312-256-7140

HOURS: 8AM-6PM Central Time, Monday-Friday

WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE

ON THE SAME PRODUCTS ANO QUANTITIES!

DISK WORLD!, Inc.

629 Green Bay Road • Wilmette. Illinois 60091

DISKETTE 70 ST<

jgH s ,x u

■ft)?
fir

Authorized Distributor MAGNETIC
MEDIA

DISK
WORLD!

Trie value leader in
Computersupplies
And accessories.

Inquiry 121

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE 433

California Digital

17700 Figueroa Street • Carson, California 90248

XEROX *299

SUNRISE COMPUTER

80 Column
LCD Display

10 Function Keys

Micro

Microphone for
Speaker Telephone

Optional Disk
Drive Port

, A^

Centronics
Printer Port

Monitor Output
Television Output

, Optional Printer

The Xerox Sunrise 1 810 is by far the best value we have ever
seen in a micro computer. This is a self contained battery and AC
operated portable. The Sunrise was originally prices at $2995.
Xerox has since elected to drop the computer from their product
list. California Digital has purchased all the remaining inventory
and is making the unit available at a fraction of its original cost.
This portable features a built in 80 column liquid crystal display,
64K of memory along with both RF monitor and television out- '
puts. The internal300/1 200 baud modem includes an auto dial
telephone assembly. The units has both Centronics parallel and
a serial port programmable to 19,200 baud. The self contained
micro cassette is capable of capturing data from the keyboard as
well as doubling as an recorder for dictating messages.
An optional dual floppy disk drive module, pictured above, is
available for only $219. Also available, for $59 is an 80 column
printer that mounts in the drive module. The Sunrise features a
CP/M operating system which allows the operator to use any
CP/M program in Xerox 5V4" disk format and over 5000 CP/M
programs available in public domain.

We have avalable a 1 5 minute tape on the Sunrise Computer. The
tape is in VHS format and was produced by Xerox to promote the
computer. California Digital isolfer the promotional tape at$15.
This will be applied towards purchase price of the Sunrise 1810.

DATAPRODUCTS

1200 Baud • Hayes Compatible

The Eclipse 1 200 is the best value we have ever offered in a fully

Hayes Compatible modem. The unit incorporates status lamps,

speakei;auto dial and many more features into this compact

package.

California Digital is so comfidentof your complete satisfaction that

we will allow the return of the Eclipse 1 200 and apply the full credit

towards the purchase price of any other modem.

T^ 1 ^ SUPPORT
£:^J?=: PRODUCTS

MEMORY & SPECIALTY BOARDS

Twix-Winchester, floppy and streamer tape 299

AST Six Pack64K, serial, par*!, clock/cal. 229

AST Six Pack as above bul384k/By le of mem. 239

AST Advantage 128K 419

AST I/O plus clock/cal.,serial& game pott 129

Quadram Quadboard II, 64K memory 279

Quadram Qua dUnk/Apple files 379

PersvstTime Spectrum card, 64K 239

DigiGraphics Muitifuncition 219

TifenTech.PC/Accellertor 499

Hexace RAM card 576K/byte 199

Hexacemultifunctlon 119

GRAPHIC CARDS

Hercules Color Card 179

Hercules Graphic Card 319

Persy st Bo B Board super hi-res color. 329

Hexace half slot video card 119

PeacockColorCard, composit/RGB, printer 139

California Comp. Supervision graphics 379

INTERNAL MODEMS

Modtech UltraLink 1200, 202 half duplex 99

AnchorAuto. Signalman Mk6. 300 baud.
Promethus 12008 internal

HARDWARE

Tallgrass 60 meg. tape hack-up
Krart IBM Joystick v

Microsoft Mouse, serial & paintbrush
Mouse Systems PC Mouse
8087 co-processor
Key Ironies 5151 IBM keyboard
Bel kin A/ B switch, pari or serial
SOFTWARE
MicroPro WordStar word processing
Ashton Tate Framework spreadsheet +
Ashton Tate D/Base III. Data Base Manager 395
Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet & more 299

Symphony by Lotus development 419

Redwood Oev. Jr. CAD, plotter 59

1459
35
145
149

119
199
59

179
395

1200 BAUD MODEMS

UltraLink 1200

The Universal Data 21 2A is manufactured for the mini-
computer market. This modem is both 300 and 1200
baud auto answer. An industrial quality modem origin-
ally priced at S595. NOT Hayes compatible.

SMARTEAM 1200

The Team 212A offers all the features of the Hayes
Smart Modem 1200 for a fraction of the price. Now is
your opportunity to purchase a 1200 baud modem at
the price of a 300 baud modem.

SIGNALMAN
300 BAUD

MARK VI

The Anchor Automation Mark VI is a 300 baud direct
connect modem that plugs into any slot of your IBM/PC.
This modem supports auto answer and auto dial capa-
bilities. Other features include telephone number stor-
age, send / receive text files, single key-stroke dialing
along with many other functions provided on disk. The
Mark VI was originally priced at over S300.

10 MEGABYTE T M0L^g
WINCHESTER £&&? M

UADh l\ICI/ l\Dllir

HARD DISK DRIVE

Quantity Two

The UltraLink is a 1200 baud HALF DU
PLEX bell 202 compatible internal modem
card forthe IBM/PC. This unit operates full
duplex at 300 baud.

The UltraLink adds a voice/data demen
sion to your PC. Manufacturers original
suggested price on this modem is S795.
California Digitals price is only S99.

MODEMS

Eclipse 1200 100% Hayes, with status lamps.
Universal Data 21 2LP, 1200 duplex, line powered.
Universal Data 212A, 300/1200 baud.industrial.
Universal Data 103JLP, line powered, autoanswer.
Hayes Smartmodem 2400 baud modem
Fujitsu 2400/1200 baud auto everything.
Team 1 200 Hayes Compatible, 300/1200 baud.
UltraLink 1 200 data and voice on same line.
CTS 212AH 1200 baud, auto dial
Terminal software for CTS 2 1 2AH
Prometheus 1 200 super features
Prometheus 1 200B internal PC
Signalman Mark 12, 1200 baud, Hayes compatible.
Signalman Mark VI, 300 baud internal PC
Hayes Smart Modem 1 200 baud, auto dial
Hayes 1200B for use with the IBM/PC, 1200 baud.
Hayes Smartmodem, 300 baud only, auto dial
Hayes Chronograph, time & date

il 300/ 1 200 industrial c

ECP-1200

UDS-212LP

UDS-212A

UDS-103LP

HYS-2400

FUJ-1935D

TEM-SM1200

UTL-1200A

CTS-212AH

CTS-212SFT

PRM-P1200

PRM-P1200B

SGL-MK12

SGL-MK6

HYS-212AD

HYS-1200B

HYS-103AD

HYS-CHR232

PEN-12AD

179.00
139.00
159.00

29.00
599.00
459.00
199.00

99.00
219.00

35.00
319.00
279.00
239.00

49.00
389.00
369.00
199.00
199.00
395.00

Five Inch Winchester Disk Drives

each Iwo-t-
SHUGART SA712 10 M. Ht. 259 239
SEAGATE ST506 6.7 Meg. 139 129
SEAGATE 225 20 Meg. V2 Ht. 389 359
SEAGATE 4026 26 M. 35mS. 859 829
SEAGATE 4051 51 M.35mS.1095 1059
FUJITSU 2242 55 M.35mS. 1799 1729
FUJITSU 2243 86 M.35mS. 2295 2219
RODIME RO-202E 27 Meg. 759 729
RODIME RO-203E 40 Meg. 995 959
RODIME RO-204E 53 Meg. 1259 1195
CONTROLDATA 94155-86 M.1829 1779
MAXTOR XT1140 140 Meg. 3379 3295
HONEYWELL 85M. 27 mS. 1795 1695
TOSHIBA MK5670M.30mS.1789 1729
TANDON 502 10 Meg. 419 379

• Winchester Controllers for IBM/PC <

FALCON Ff-HDC half card

XEBEC 1220 with flop pi controller

NATIONAL COMPUTER 5004

DTC 5150BX

OMTI 5510 hall card

ADAPTEC 2010A software install

WESTERN DIGITAL WD/1002

• SCSI/SASI Winchester Controllers <

189
269
159
159
189
189
189

XEBEC 1410A 5%" foot print
OMTI 20L

• Winchester Accessories •
Installation Kit with manual
Winchesterenclosure and supply
Dual 20/34 cable set
Switching power supply

239
119

10
139
25
49

TOLL FREE ORDER LINE

(800)421-5041

TECHNICAL ft CALIFORNIA

(213)217-0500

434 BYTE' FEBRUARY 1986

California Digital

fueroa § treet # Carson, Calif ornia 90248

54" DISK DRIVE

SALE '89

LETTER QUALITY kM4%£%

F- 10 DAISY *KYr

WHEEL PRINTER

Single piece price $499. But if you have already
purchased an F-10 printer from California Digital, we
will honor the $429 price on the second printer.

iii nTnfnrnnnTn

faiSfynnwi&jajgifsml

The TEC F-10 Daisy Wheel printer is the perfect an-
swer to a reasonably priced 40 character word proces-
sing printer. While this printer is " extremely" similar to
C.ltoh's F-10/40 Starwriter printer. Legal counsel for
the C.ltoh Company have advised us that we should
refrain from referring to the TEC printer as a Starwriter.
This 40 character per second printer auto installs with
Wordstar and Perfect Writer. Features extensive built-
in word processing functions that allow easy adaptabil-
ity and reduced software complexity. Industry standard
Centronics interface provides instant compatibility with

all computers equiped with a parallel printer port. The
TEC F-1 accepts paper up to 15 inches in width.
These printers were originally priced to sell at over
$1400. Through a special arrangment California Digital
has purchase these units from a major computer man-
ufacturer and is offering these printers at a fraction of
their original cost.

Options available include sheetfeeder, tractor feed,
buffered memory and an assortment of printer cables
for a variety of computers.

DUAL SHUGART

SUBSYSTEM

'239

The dual Shugart subsystem features
two SA465 (96 tpi) 51A M double sided
disk drives. Also supplied within the
subsystem is 50 watt power supply
and a shielded signal cable.

PLOTTER

219

ffl

Quantity Two

Your Choice any 48 or 96 TPI drive

SHUGART • TEAC • QUME

MITSUBISHI • MATSUSHITA

TEAC FD55B half height 99

TEAC FD55F 96 TPI, half ht. 119
TEAC FD55FG for IBM AT 189

SHUGART SA455 Half Height 99
SHUGART SA465 V 2 Ht. 96TPI 99
T ANDON 1 00-2 full height 1 29

MITSUBISHI4851 half height 99
MITSUBISHI 4853 96/TPIVz Ht. 99
MITSUBISHI 4854 8" elec. 295
QUME 142 half height 99

Switching power supply
Installation Kit with manual
Dual enclosure for 5 W drives
34 pin edge connectors
Scotch head cleaning kit
Flip & File Storage tubs

wo Ten

89 89

89 89

179 175

89 89

89 89

125 119

89 89

89 89

285 275

89 89

49

10

59

5

19

15

Stnintemiptoble

Power Supply

'239

If you loosing dala due to "dirty" power and power failure, this uninterruptable
supply is the ideal solution. The UPS supplies 250 watts of of clean power,
free from RFI and EMI noise. The unit will support a IBM/XT system and color

monitor uplo 12 miniules after power failure. Enough time to complete your
program and come to a soft landing. The UPS can be sustained for addition
hours by connecting to a 1 2 volt car battery. This is an inexpensive solution to
a very costly problem.

TheComrex Comscriber I is the ideal solution lo make short work ot translating financial and

numeric data into a graphic presentation Many ready lo run programs such as Lotus 1 -2-3

Vision and Apple business graphics already suppon this plotter.

The Comscriber I features programmable paper sizes up to 8" ; by 120 inches. 6 inch per

second plot speed and 004 step sue Easy lo impiemeni Centronics interlace allows Ihe

Comscriber I immediate use witti the printer port ol most personal computers

The Comscriber I is manufactured lor Comrex by the Enter Computer Corporairon The

plotter is marketed by Heath Ki1 and also sold under Enters own Sweel P Label This is

your opportunity to purchase a ploiter which was originally priced at S795 foronly S2 19

Also available is a support package which includes demonstration software, interlace cable.

a multicolor pen assortment and a variety ol paper and transparency material

SEC RGB

COLOR
MONITOR

'219

The NEC JC-1401 D is a 13 medium/high resolution RGB monitor suitable lor use with the
Sanyo MBC-550/555or the IBM/PC The monitor lealures a resolution ol 400 dots by 240
lines Colors available are Red. Green. Blue. Yellow. Cyan. Magenta. Black and While.
The NEC moniior carries the Litlon-Monroe label and was originally scheduled lor use m
their Ollice of the future equipment A change :n Monroe s marketing strategy has made
these unils excess inventory which were sold lo Caiilomia Digital We are oftenng these
new RGB momiors at a traction of their original cosi Sanyo compatible NEC-140I/S'
1BM/P/C Computer compatible NEC- 140l /PC

Quick-Link300

'59

The Quick-Link 300 gives you an instant link to any dial up data base. Such as
Dow Jones, Western Union or the Source. The Quick-Link has lour user
programmable log-onkeys, allowing the operator, with only one key stroke, to
dial the data base, log-in and give the password. All this information is perma-
nently stored in non-volatile RAM.

Features include video output to television or monitor, auto dial, auto-log, full
sized keyboard. 300 baud modem and 1 200 baud auxillaty printer port. All this
is available lor only S59.

DRAG0H

'99

UME

Eight Inch Single Sided Drives
QUME 841 single side 159 149 call

SHUGART 801R
SIEMENS FDD 100-8

359 359 354
119 115 109

Eight Inch Double Sided Drives

QUME 842 "QUME TRACK 8" 189 179 call

SHUGART SA851R 495 485 475

OLIVETTI double sided 189 179 159

REMEXRFD-4000 179 169 159

MITSUBISHI M2896-63 Vz Ht. 459 449 409

Dual 8" enclosure with power and fan 259

Switching power supply 89

Installation kit with manual 10

PRINTERS

Compatible with most Radio Shack Color Computer soltware. The world
famous Dragon computer is now available in the United States. Manufactured
by the Tano Corp. under license of the British Broadcasting Company.
The Dragon comes complete with 64K Byte of memory, serial modem port
along with a Centronics printer interface. This unique microcomputer features
Motorola's advanced 6809E microprocessor and comes standard with Micro-
soft Color Basic, data base manager, and a complete word processing pack-
age. The computer outputs color composite video along with R.F. video that
allows the unit to be used in conjunction with any color television.
This is the Ideal low cost computer to be used with any dial up information
system such as the Source, EasyLtnk or any other time share setvice.

MATRIX PRINTERS

Star Gemmi-SG 1 120 char/sec. STR-SG 1

Star Gemmi-SG 15. too char ./sec. I 5" paper STRSGI5

StarGemini Delta 10, 160Char/sec STR-DlO

Citizen MSP/10FT 160 char/sec ClT-MSPiO

Toshiba P1351. 19? char/sec.tclter quality TOS-1351

Okrdata 1 82A serial & parallel 9' i paper OKI-182A

Okirjata 192A parallel interlace. 160 char/sec OKI-192A

Okidata84P parallel 1 5" paper OKI-84P

Epson LX-80 10" 120 Char/sec EPS LX80

Epson FX80FT. 10' 160 char /sec. wild graplilrax EPS-FXS0

Epson RXiOOt 15" withGraphlrax EPS-RXtOO

Epson FX100FT 15" 160char /sec with graphlrax EPS-FX100

Epson L01 500, 15" corespondcncc quality EPS-LQi500

Epson JX80 Color printer EPS-JX30

Prownter 8510 parallel 9 1 ?' paper PRO-8S10P

Dataproducts B-600-3. band prmier 600 LPM DPS-B600

Prmtronix P300 high speed printer 300 lines per minute PTX-P300

Pnntronix P600 ullVa high speed 600 lines per mmuie PTX-PBOO

WORD PROCESSING PRINTERS

PRO-FlOP

Starwriter F 10 parallel, -10 char/sec.

NEC8810 55 char/second, serial interlace

NEC8830 55 char/sec. par I inierlace.

NEC3550 popular printer designed tor Ihe IBM/PC

NEC2050 designed tor IfiMPC 20 char/sec. par I

Silver Reed EXP500, u char; sec par I inierlace

Silver Reed EXP550 1 7 Char/sec par I interlace

Diablo 630 40 char/sec serial

Diablo 620, proportional spacing, hoa A vei

Juki 61 00. IB char /sec

Juki 6300. -to char./sec.

Comrex CR2, 5k bulter. proportional spacing, par I

NEC-8810
NEC-8830
NEC-3550
NEC-2050
SRD-EXP500
SRO-EXP550
DBL-630
20 c ps DBL-620
JUK-610O
JUK-6300
CRXCR2P

239.00
38900
35900
28900
1495.00
25700
345 00
789.00
239 00
369.00
3S900
•18900
895 00
519.00
32900
6985.00
399500
5795 00

-199 00
I8S9.00

1659 00
1599 00
689 00
319 00
429 00
1569 00
769 00
399 00
699 00
395 00

Shipping: First five pounds $3.00, each additional pound $.50.
Foreign orders: 1 0% shipping, excess will be refunded.
California residents add 6 1 /2% sales tax, • COD's discouraged.
Open accounts extended to state supported educational institu-
tions and companies with a strong "Dun & Bradstreet" rating.

FEBRUARY 1986 • BYTE" 435

Competitive Prices

COD - VISA - MasterCard
All orders shipped within 24 HRS.

NORTH HILLS CORP.
INTERNATIONAL

• 3564 Rolling View Dr.
White Bear Lake, MN 55110
MN. call collect— 612-770-0485

Inquiry 24 5

Get the whole

story on graphics

terminal emulation.

To find out more about software
that lets your PC emulate
TEKTRONIX™ 4105/6/7/9 and
DEC VT100™ terminals,
call or write:

(I GRAFPOinT

4340 Stcv«ns Creeks Blvd., Suite 280,
San lose, CA 95129 (408) 249-7951

BUY

UNITED

STATES

SAVINGS

BONDS

Inquiry 389

ATTENTION
BERNOULLI BOOSTERS

D Go Either Way!

BOOT

from the Bernoulli Box!
from the AT Hard Disk!

FORMAT WITH DOS

PARTITION WITH FDlSK

NO SLOWING

We've been shipping Bernoulli Boots

that work for over a year —

slid waiting?

Golden Bow Systems

S95-S110

Add S3 for snipping

Handling

California residents add

*$r«, i

(619) 298-9349

M»A.G»I»C

INLAB 28
LOGIC/MEMORY

PROGRAMMER

It must be magic!

How else could

INLAB load all

these features into such a small package:

• Capable of programming hundreds of logic
and memory devices!

• Small and portable-less than 26 ounces!

• Inexpensive firmware updating!

• Available with CUPL™ design software!

• Standard RS232 interface!

• EPROM emulation, from 2716 up to 27256
(including CMOS).'

It's no illusion! For only $1995. we can make
a Model 28 appear before your very eyes!
Just give us a call at 303/460-0103.

We'd like to do some
magic for you!

CUPL u j irufcrturk »t AmwcJ

IMA B

A H.ithjway Coni(uny

2150-1 West 6th Avenue
Broomfield, CO 80020

WEDGE-PC OEM PRODUCTS

PC-AT Compatible $1659/one

512k RAM. 1.2M disk drive, hard disk & floppy

disk controller, monochrome card, 200W

power, keyboard, enclosure.

PC-XT compatible $550/one

256k RAM, one 340 disk drive, monochrome

card, keyboard, 130W power, enclosure.

AT mother board $895 AT Enclosure $79

AT 200W power $135 Monochrome monitor $99

Dealer call for qty price

WEDGE TECHNOLOGY INC.

1190 Mt. View-Alviso Rd., Suite R

Sunnyvale, CA 94089 (408) 734-9866

Telex 3719075 EDGE UB

Inquiry 147

Inquiry 1 64

Inquiry 353

BASF

FLEXYDISKS

1004

SS/DD
Soft

$ .92,
1.02.

DS/DD
Soft

High Density $A CQ
(IBM -AT) ^.OSe

\89.
'.99.

•2.49 ,

2.10., '2.05

3.5 / SS $

Micro

In Stock — Immediate Shipment.

Mastercard, VISA, Check or Money Order.

Add S3.00 shipping charges per each 100 or part.

Add S2.50 additional for C.O.D. shipments.

N.J. residents add 6% sales tax.

Data Exchange

Dept. B, P.O. Box 993
178 Route 206 South
Somerville, N.J. 08876

(201) 874-5050

WE CAN MAKE

INCOMPATIBLE DATA

COMPATIBLE!

We can transfer datafiles between different
operating systems; convert media (disks
and tapes); decode and translate documents
between major dedicated word processors
and/or major PC software; re-arrange data-
base files; transfer texts and re-formulate
spreadsheet data.

Write or call to discuss your needs, then send
a disk or tapesa?nple of your data file for a com-
plimentary translation.

CompuData
Translators, Inc.

6565 Sunset Blvd., Suite 301

Hollywood, CA 90028

(213) 462-6222

ADAPSO Member

Erases Most Eproms
in 3 Minutes ^

Solid State 2-8 Min.

Timer Version $54.95

For all 24 or 28 pin devices— 2 at a time.

90 DAY WARRANTEE SHIPPING & HANDLING

DEALERS WELCOME $2 50

AZ RESIDENTS
. ...... ^i^- ^-.^ ADD6%TAX

wmuriG co.

4401 S. JUNIPER • TEMPE, AZ 85282 • (602) 838-1277

Inquiry II 3

Inquiry 77

Inquiry 349

o

TM

COMPUTERBANC

HARD DRIVE KITS

20 MB Internal w/Controller $495 ]
30 MB Internal for AT $799

TAPE DRIVES

20 MB I 45 MB I 60 MB
$699 I $999 I $1,099

'File by File
Mirror image "Software included

IBM PC XT

20 MB, 256K
$2549

$1900

256K, 2 Drive
IBM PC

IBM PC COMPATIBLES

ITT XTRA 2 Drive, 256K $1,495

AMIGA CALL |

16 Bit PC Clone System

1 All systems Include monochrome monitor, DOS; and parallel port

IBM SOFTWARE

LOTUS 123 CALL

Symphony CALL

ENABLE . 3B9.00

GEM COLLECTION 129.00

ASHTON TATE Framework 379.00

dBASEII 2B9.00

dBASE III 3B9.00

CLIPPER dBASE III Compiler .379.00

MULTIMATE 239.00

S0RCIM SUPERCALC III 210.00

Super Project 210.00

MICROSOFT Multiplan 125.00

Word , 229.00

Project .159.00

FOX A GELLER Quickcode .139.00

NORTON UTILITIES .52.00

TURBO PASCAL ver 3.0 49.00

SUPERKEY .37.00

SIDEKICK (unprotected) 46.00

ASCI PRO Comm Software 69.00

CROSSTALK XVI 105.00

PEACHTREEBackto Basics CALL

IN-HOUSE ACCOUNTANT B9.00

WORDPERFECT 249.00

MICROPRO WordStar Pro 259.00

WordStar2000# ....316.00

SAMNAPLUS 345.00

WORD III 279.00

BBASE5000 389.00

PRINTMASTER 35.00

ENERGRAPHICS .169.00

BPI General Accounting 316.00

IBM HARDWARE

AST 6 Pack Plus w/384k 249.00

Advantage W/128k 399.00

HERCULES Mono Graphics 319.00

Color Card 159.00

HERCULES likeColorCard 129.00

Monochrome Graphics Card 149.00

ORCHID Turbo w/256k 669.00

QUA0RAM Quadboard 0-K 19B.00

QuadPorttorATser&par 115.00

TECHMAR Graphics Master 469.00

STB Rio plus 64K 5 Function 189.00

Rio Grande 3 function for AT 2B9.00

Companion Pc 0-2 MB 189.00

Chaffeur monographics 234.00

PARADISE Modular Graphics Card CALL

SIGMA High ResColor400 CALL

IBM Compatibles

MultifunctionCard384ks,p,clck 169.00

Multifunction Card 0K-1 , 2mb 179.00

Compatible Mono Card w/par 129.00

5151 Compatible Keyboard 119.00

Expansion Chasis CALL

TALLGRASSW/Tape CALL

IRWIN Tape Drive 499.00

EVEREX TAPE Pc/Xt/AT CALL

Graphics Edge Card 259.00

TEAC55B 95.00

1.2MB FLOPPYforAT 189.00

360K Floppy for AT 115.00

MOUSE SYSTEMS Mouse 135.00

FIELDMOUSE 113.00

MICROSOFT Mouse w/sflwr 117.00

KOALA KAT 149.00

DISKETTES 2S DD 15.00

MODEMS

ANCHOR Express 300/1200 229.00

Volksmodem 1 200 (5 yr wrnty) 169.95

Lightning 2400 Baud CALL

HAYES 1200 379.00

1200B 349.00

2400 CALL

Micromodem // e CALL

PROMETHEUS 1200 ...269.00

Promodem 1 200B 229.00

Promodem 1 200A 259.00

Promoden 300 lie 139.00

MONITORS

AMDEK300A 139.00

310A Hi-Res Amber 155.00

C0LOR600 HI-RES RGB 433.00

COLOR 710 474.00

PRINCETON GRAPHICS HX-12 469.00

HX-9 449.00

SR-12. 625.00

MAX-12 179.00

TAXAN 121/122 149.00

620(RGB)640x200NEW CALL

640 (RGB) 720x400 NEW CALL

PANASONIC DT-S101 Color 141.00

DT-H103 10" High Res RGB 369.00

IBM COMPATIBLE Monocrome 99.00

Color RGB Monitor(640 x 200) 349.00

PRINTERS

BROTHER 1509 DOT MATRIX 369.00

HR-15XL 345.00

HR-25XL 469.00

HR-35XL 699.00

Twinwriter B22.00

EPSONLX-80 ...225.00

FX-85 345.00

FX-185 4B5.00

0KI0ATAML-192 CALL

ML-193 CALL

PANASONIC (2 yr warranty)

KX-P1091 229.00

KX-P1092 299.00

KX-P1592 459.00

KX-P3131/17cpsDaisey 269.00

KX-P3151 22 cps Daisey Wheel 379.00

T0SHIBAP351 w/tractor 1279.00

STAR MIR0NICS SG-10 219.00

SG-15 399.00

CITIZENMSP-10 266.00

MSP-15....... 335.00

MSP-25 4B9.00

CANNON LaserPrinter CALL

HOUSTON INSTRUMENTS Plotters . . . .CALL

Digitizers CALL

HEWLETT PACKARD PRINTERS CALL

APPLE PRODUCTS

APPLIED ENG. Ramworks64K 149.00

AST Multi I/O CALL

MICRO SCI A2 Drive Me 169.00

lie compatible drive 139.00

APPLE Compatible Drive 129.00

MAC Compatible 3% drive 249.00

BERNOULLI 5MB MAC drive CALL

MACINTOSH Harddrive CALL

MICROSOFT Macenhancer CALL

Soflcardll 259.00

Multi-plan //e& Mac 129.00

Basic (Mac) 109.00

ASCII XPRESS (Communications) 69.00

THE DESKORGANIZER (Mac) 133.00

APPLEMOUSEII 129.00

APPLEWORKS 215.00

SPELLWORKS CALL

PRINTSHOP 35.00

Mach III Joystick 39.00

SYSTEM SAVER Fan 69.00

VIDEO 7 lie Enhancer CALL

V-color lie (RGB) . .Titan Accelerator. .229.00

VIDEX Ultraterm 169.00

APRIC0RN (Lifetime Warranty)

Super Serial Imager 69.00

Graphics Interface 59.00

80Column/64K 69.00

Extend IT 64K 49.00

KOALASpeedKey .99.00

DISKETTES APPLE/MAC 12.00/24.00

We support these fine systems:
IBM, Compag, ITT, AT & T and Apple.

Call for complete pricing. Thousands of products available. Volume discounts.

B

Ttt

COMPUTERBANC

16783 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach, Cfl 92647
T€L€X #550757 RNSW€R BACK— COMPUT€R UD
714/841-6160

No Charge for Credit Cards
Orders Only

800/332-BANC

OUTSID6 CALIFORNIA

Cosh prices Indicated. Rlptodutts are In factory sealed packages. (He guarantee all Items for 30 days. Within this period, defective merchandise returns must

be accompanied by AMR number, fill other returns will be subject to a 10% restocking fee. For prepaid orders, there will be a 3% shipping charge; 5% for UPS

Blue Label; $5.00 minimum; all orders outside U.S.A. at 15% shipping. California residents add 6% soles tax. Prices subject to change without notice.

©Copyright 1.985 COMPUTCflBRNC. fill flights Reserved.

Inquiry 92

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 437

TOLL FREE

800-854-8230

CA Residents 71 4-558-881 3

OUR POLICY

•Surcharge for VISA o r Mastercard.

•Volume purchasing agreements available.

•Orders subject to availably. «Supply limited on certain items.

•Pricing subject to change without notice.

•ACP Retail Store pricing may vary. Not responsible for typos.

2&SS PRICE BREAKTHRU

At these prices you would expect a
Taiwan clone. We are offering the
best IBM PC/XT® compatible
available in the market today. Com-
pare the features and you won't
believe the price!

ADVANCED PC/XT

NEW $

LOW

PRICE!

750

oo

BASE
PRICE

ACP has sold over 2,000 of this system
to major customers including Rockwell
Int'l, Hughes Aircraft and Emulex Corp.
See for yourself why these customers
prefer the Advanced XT over the IBM XT.

(Photo of System 6)

BASE PRICE INCLUDES:

• (1) 360K DS/DD Floppy Disk

• 256K RAM Expandable to 640K on
the Motherboard (256K chips)

• On Board Serial Port - FREE

• On Board Parallel Port - FREE

• On Board LCD Display Port - FREE

• On Board RGB Output - FREE

• On Board Video Comp. Out -FREE

• Keyboard Output Port

• (3) Expansion Slots

• Quiet 100 Watt Power Supply

• Ergonomic Design & Packaging

• VLSI Circuit Design

• 90 Day Warranty

• UL Approved/FCC Approved

UNBUNDLED ADVANCED PC/XT COMPONENT PRICING (ACP recommends using all Advanced Components in upgrading your PC)

SYSTEM 1
SYSTEM 2

CPU w/(2) Floppys, Keyboard, Mouse,
Mouse Software & Grn Mon w/flt Swiv Base.

Same as System 1 with RGB Color Monitor
and Tilt Swivel Base

$1150.00
$1399.00

SYSTEM 3
SYSTEM 4

CPU w/(1) Floppy, 10Mb Hard Disk, Controller,
Keyboard, Mouse and Mouse Software

Same as System 3 with 20Mb

$1399.00
$1699.00

SYSTEM 5
SYSTEM 6

CPU w/(1) Floppy, 10Mb HD, Contr'l, Keyboard,
Mouse w/Software & Grn Mon. w/Tlt/Swiv Base

Same as System 5 with RGB Color Monitor
and Tilt & Swivel base

$1549.00
$1799.00

SYSTEM 7
SYSTEM 8

CPU w/(1) Floppy, 20Mb HD, Contr'l, Keyboard
Mouse w/Software &Grn Mon w/Tlt & Swiv Base

Same as System 7 with RGB Color Monitor
and Tilt and Swivel Base

$1849.00
$2099.00

•CPU Base Unit $750.00

•Keyboard w/Mouse & Software 149.95

•RGB Color Mon w/TltSwiv Base. . . 395.00

•Grn Comp. Mon w/Tlt Swiv Base.. 199.00

•LCD 80 x 25 Display 299.00

•Green Monochrome Monitor 149.00

•Hi-res Text Mono Card 149.00

•256K Upgrade (Installed) 59.95

•8087-2 Co-processor 129.95

•1200 Baud Modem Short Card,

Hayes Compatible w/Software. $179.95

•6 Slot Expansion Chassis 399.00

•10Mb (gray) Upgrade w/Contr'l. . . . 399.00

•20Mb (gray) Upgrade w/Contr'l. . . . 599.00

•360K (gray) DS/DD Floppy Disk... 129.00

•PC DOS 2.1 65.00

•PC Works 1.15 (Touchstone)

Regular $195 49.95

•GW Basic $75.00

•GEM by Digital Research 29.95

•Maintenance Manual 50.00

•Technical Reference Manual 50.00

SYSTEM SPECIALS

•Sys 5 w/Diablo 620 Serial $1849.00

•Sys 6 w/Diablo 620 Serial 2099.00

DIABLO 620 DAISYWHEEL PRINTER

The Finest Letter Quality
Printer at a Spectacular Price.
We have sold 1000's. You can

have a spare at this price.

620 Serial List 1495 ACP $395.00

620 API List 1695 ACP 445.00

620 D36 List 1695 ACP 495.00

F-21 Sheet Feeder. List 895 ACP 249.00

620 Tractor List 395 ACP 99.00

Cable ACP 29.00

Serial to Par. 16K Buffer. . . .ACP 125.00

jHoRivSj^ft

CALL
lTfflRT

IBM PC/XT© of IBM

10 Mb QOQQ 20 Mb

Upgrade tj)U3J Upgrade tpOaa

(1 Year Warranty)

Qty. 1 Qty. 6
SA712 10Mb $229 $219

ST225 20 Mb $369 $349

Western Digital Cont $195 $175

PC UPGRADE SPECIAL

SET OF (9) 64K RAMS

$795

4Q SET OF (9) 256K RAMS
$5.95 4128 PIGGYBACK RAM

1200 Baud Hayes™ Comp. Modem
Short Card by U.S. Robotics with
Telpac I Software.

List $499 ACP.. $179.00
Buy (6) $159.00

20Mb Tape Back-up

Archive, #1 in

tape back-up

technology.

High speed

20Mb back-up

for only

$899.00

External Box w/Power Supply

Great for adding Hard Disk to your PC.
Same as photo $179.00

DOT-MATRIX BLOW OUT

DIABLO/HONEYWELL

P-11 100cps, parallel
S-11 100cps, serial
P-31 100cps, par, wide
S-31 100cps, ser, wide
P-32 150cps, par, NLQ

$129.95
139.95
249.95
269.95
299.95

CANNON/USA

PW-1080A 165cps, parallel $169.95
PW-1156A 165cps, par, wide 199.95

— — — _ji

ffi^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^ B

DID YOU GET OUR FLYER?

IF NOT . . .
CALL & GET ON
OUR MAIL LIST

n

JANUARY SPECIALS

(SUPPLY LIMITED)

UPS POWER SUPPLY

Back Up Powsrforyour IBM,

Apple or Compatible

UPS-PC 200Walls $277.00

UPS-XT 300 Walls ""900

UPS-AT 800 Walls 739.00

A-B PRINTER SWITCH

An AB Switch allows use of two printerswith
your compulersystem. We stocK over IS dif-
ferent configurations.

AB Switch (Centronics) S59 00

AB Switch (0625) 59.00

COLOR VIDEO CARDS

Planlronics Color Plus $375.00

IBM Color Card 227.00

IBM Mono Card w/parallel 219 00

STB Graphics Plus 389.00

Paradise Mullidisplay Card 345.00

Everex GraphlcsEdge 345.00

DRIVE CABINETS

IBM Style Hard Disk with power

supply and fan $179.00

Dual Hard Disk wrpower sup & Ian 295.00

Dual 5V«" Full Heightvertical mount 65.00

Dual 5V«" Full Haighl horizontal mount 99.00
Dual 5VV Thinline w/power sup & Ian 60.00
Single 5V." Full Height w/power sup & Ian 56.00
Single 5V«" Thinline w/power sup £ Ian 60.00

PERSYST CARDS

Persyst Mono Combo — NEW!

Persyst Color Combo — NEW!

Persyst Bob Boarb

Persyst Shortport Color

Persysl Mini Mono

Persyst -t I Tlmo Speclrum W/64K

Persyst 192K Rainbow DEC Card

5335 00
335 00
445.00

SPECIAL BUY

Sharp 12" Color RGB Monitor
List $499.00 ACP $249.95

MODEM SPECIAL

Hayes Smarlmodem Compatible
1200 B. External. Sold for $399

$199.00

INTERSIL STD-BUS BOARDS

TRANSISTORS/DIODES

ISB3100
ISB3101
ISB3110
ISB3216
IS83218
ISB3220
ISB3330
ISB3331
ISB3340
ISB3400
ISB3410
ISB3500

Z80CPU
ZBO Univ. CPU
8085CPU
16K CMOS RAM
16K Sialic RAM
16KCMOS RAM
Z80 PID(Dm

LIST ACP

S200 $69.95

200 69 95

200 79.95

610 99.95

200 39.95

Univ<

31 PIO

ISB3521

Opto Para. Input
Floppy Controller
SASI (DMA) WINI li

Opto-lso Input
SPST Relay
DPDT Relay

245 6995
315 149 95
720 269 95

ISB3610 EPROM Programer
ISB3700 Sync/Async
ISB3711 Univ. Sync/Async
ISB3720 REMDACS
ISB3S30 12BHA/0

CAPACITORS

01uF DISC BYPASS CAPACITOR 100/$!

.1 uF DISC BYPASS CAPACITOR 100/f

OluF MONOLITHIC CAPACITOR 100/11

.1 uF MONOLITHIC CAPACITOR 100/1/

CORCOM EMI FILTER

STD CORCOM 3 Conductor Filter S*

Line Cord lor above — 6 foot
Line Cord 2 Conductor — 6 loot
LineCord 3 Conductor — 6 loot

MUFFIN FANS

Over 10,000 In Stock

Torin3"TA-300Fan NEWI $9 95

Tonn 4 68" Mullin Fan NEWI 12.95

12VOC Fan NEWI 14.95

Finger Guardsadd 1 49

Power Cords add '49

IC SOCKETS

SOLOERTAIL 1-99

8 PinST/LP $ .13 !

14PinST/LP .15

16PinST/LP .17

18 Pin ST/LP .20

20 Pin ST/LP .28

22 Pin ST/LP 29

24 Pin ST/LP 29

28 Pin ST/LP .39

36 Pin ST/LP .45

40 Pin ST/IP .48

64 Pin ST/LP 3 95

WIREWRAP (GOLD) 1-99

8 Pin WW/3L $ .49 !

14 Pin WW/3L .62

16 Pin WW/3L .65

18 Pin WW/3L 86

20 Pin WW/3L .99

22 Pin WW/3L 1.19

24PinWW/3L 1.25

28 Pin WW/3L 1 49

40 Pin WW/3L 169
TEXTOOL/ZIF ZERO INSERTION

16 Pm $6.75 24 Pin S7.85 28 Pin S

(We Slock All Types of Sockets)

PN2222A

PN2369A

PN916

2N221BA

2N2219A

2N2905

2N2907

2N3055

2N3565

2N3638

2N3772

2N3904
2N3906
T1P29A
TIP30A
TIP31A
TIP32A
1N4146
1N751
1N4002
1N4004
MPQ2232

5/1 00
12/1 00
10/1 00

OPTO ISOLATORS

MCT-2

MCT-6

MCT-66

MCA-255

4N26

4N27

4N28

LED LAMPS

SPECIAL VALUES!

MCM68705 EPROM

6116/2016-150mS

DB-2SP Mala

DB-25S Fomalo

2732A-2

2716DC-450mS

2764-450mS

$9.95
10/19.95
10/17.50
10/1995
10/2995
10/2450
10/29.95

CALL ACP FOR ALL YOUR
VOLUME IC REQUIREMENTS

EDGE CONNECTORS

S-100ST $3 95 S3 25

S-100WW 4 75 4 10

44 P,n ST 2.75 2.60

44 PinWW 4.75 4.25

72 Pin ST 6 50 6 10

72 PinWW 7.25 6.95

D-SUBMINIATURE

DB25S (Fomalo
DB25P(Malo)

Hood $1.25
DE37S (Female)
DE37P (Male)

Hood $1.75
DD50S (Female)
DD50P (Malo)

Hood $3 25

$3.10 $2.90

6.00

Mtg H/W $ 99
(OTHER STYLES IN CATALOG)
CENTRONICS
IDC 36 Pin Male
IDC 36 Pin Female
Solder 36 Pin Malo
Soldar 36 Pin Female

(CALL TOLL FREE FOR IDC's)

IDC CONNECTORS

Solder Header

Rt Angle Solder Header

flibbon Header Socket

Ribbon Header

Wirewrap Header

Rl Angle W/W Header

NUMBER OF CONTACTS
10 20 26 34 40 5<

.79 1.20 1.65 2.10 2.40 3.00

20 4.60 7.15

NOTE: To order insert number o! contacts in place of xx in ACP part number.
ORDER QUANTITY OF SOpcs (mixed) AND TAKE AN ADDITIONAL 10% OFF.

EPSON PRINTERS

FX-85 (160cps) $369.00

FX-185 (160cps) 515.00

LX-80 (100 Cps) 245.00

LQ-1500 (NLQ) 899.00

PRINTER SPECIALS

Toshiba 1340 $399.00

Toshiba 341 .. .949.00

Toshiba 351 1099.00

Star SG-10 239.00

FX-80+ 339.QG Brother 1509 399.00

08000

6BOOOLI0

6800

8035 $ 575

8039 5.75

8080A 2.95

B065A 4.90

60C8SA 9.95

8086 2450

8067-2 129.95

8088 17,50

6155

6,75

6158

6.75

8185

28.95

8202

23.95

8203

37 95

6810
6820
6821
6826
6B40

6504 S6.75

8214
8216
8224
6226
6228
6237

8243
6250
8251
8251A
8253
8255
6255A
8257

S 2.65

6850 S 3.2

3.75

6852 5.

2.90

6660 7.

14 50

6875 6.

12.75

6BB0 2.2

11.95

68047 22.

6522 S5.25
6532 9.50

6551 1150

8271
8275
8279
8262

8287
6288
8289

8748
8749
8755A

S 6.75
69 95
2695

12.95
27 95
24.50
24.50
34.95

ZB0-CPU
Z80-CTC

Z80-DART

Z80-OMA

Z80-PID

Z80-S1O/0

Z80-SID/1

Z80-S1O/2

ZBO-SID/9

ZB671 37,95

DISK CONTROLLERS

UPD765

$9.95

1797

S21.95

6843

$2895

1771

15.95

2791

32.95

8272

1995

1791

2275

2793

32.95

1691

695

1793

2150

2795

3295

2143

6 95

1795

2150

2797

27 95

9216

I2J6

CR1

r CONTROLL

ERS

B848

$1195

8275

S28.50 T

MS991B

$39.50

L"> -V.fi

17.95

7220

34 95 i

350

3995

63--. 7

11.50

5027

17 95 6

i.'.S

14 95

4.; tat.

14 75

5037

21.95 1 1

;c?

19 95

i:K-U

I9 60

NEC7220 Graphics

34 95

UARTSSUSARTS

1602B $395 I 2350 S
1013A 3 95 8250
1015A 675 I IM6402

1702(1mS)
270B(450nS)
2758(5V)
2716(450nS)
2716 (350nS)
2516 (5V)
TMS2716
TMS2532
2732 (450nS)
2732 (250nS)
2732 (200nS)

2732A-4 (450nS) S 450

2732A(250nS) 6.95

2732A-2 (200nS) 8.95

2764 (450nS) '95

2764 (250nS) 2 95

2764 (200nS) 4 95

TMS2564 (450nS) 9 95

MCM68764 (450nS) 19.95

MCM68766 (350nS) 21.95

27128-3 (300nS) 9.50

27128 (250nS) 15 95

4014
4015
4016
4017
4018
4019
4020
4021
4022
4023
4024
4025
4027

74C02
74C04
74C08
74C10

4028

5 .65

4059

$7.90

4029

.75

4060

.85

4030

.39

4068

.39

4031

3.25

4069

.28

■■,01?

2 15

4070

.35

4034

1.91

4071

.28

4035

79

4072

.28

4037

1.95

4073

,28

4040

.75

4075

.26

4041

75

4076

.75

4042

.65

4077

.35

4043

85

4078

.35

4044

,69

4081

29

4046

80

4062

29

4047

89

4065

.95

4048

.99

4086

.95

4049

35

4093

45

4050

.34

4094

2.95

4051

75

4096

1.90

4052

75

4099

1.65

4053

75

4501

.69

4055

3,95

4502

.95

4056

2.95

4503

.49

CALL FOR

STATIC RAMS

2101 (450nS)
21L02 (450nS)
2102-1 (450nS)
21L02-2 (250nS)
2111 (450nS)
2U2(450nS)
2114 (450nS)
2I14L-4 (450n)
2114L-3(300n)
2114L-2 (200n)
2147 (55nS)
4044-4(450nS)
4044.3 (SOOnS)
4044-2 (200nS)
UPD4I0 (lOOnS)
5101 (CMOS)

1.45 8/9.50
69 8/12 50
.79B/13.30
89 8/13.90

MK4118 S495

TMM2016-2(200nS) 3,10
TMM20l6-15(150n) 3.95
TMM2016.1 (100nS) 3 00
HM6116P-4 (200nS) 4 75
HM6116P-3 (150nS) 3.25
HM6116P-2 (120nS) 5.75
HM6116LP-4 (LP) 3.60
HM6116LP-3 (LP) 3 95
HM6116LP-2(LP) 3.95
Z6132 (300nS) 32 95

HM6264P-15(150) 14.95
HM6264LP.15(LP) 16.95
74S189 (35nS) 1.65

93415 (50rlS) 3 95

93425(50nS) 3.95

DYNAMIC RAMS

4027 (250nS)

1103 (300nS)

4116N-2(150nS)

4116N.3(200nS)

4116N-4 (250nS)

4164N-150(150n)

4164N-200(200n)

4164NI20(120nS>

TMS4164(150nS)

9/7.95
9/7 50
2 95

TMS4416(200nS) S6 95

TMS4416(150nS) 7 75

41256-150(150n) 2,75

41258-200(200n) 2.75

TMS4050(300nS) 1 85

TMS4060(300nS) 1 85

MM52B0(300nS) 185

UPD411 (300nS) 1 85

MM529BI250nS) 1.85

DISK SPECIAL (ibm pc dsddj

79L a"- "' WOWI

■ ^^ **«•■ Hub Rings

PACKAGE TyvacCove, Supply Limited
OF 100 Major Mfge.

5V4" DISKETTES

VERBATIM 52501 SS/DD
VERBATIM 550.01 OS/OD (IBM)
MAXELL MD-I SS/DD (Ali)
MAXELL MD-2 0S/DD (IBM)
MAXELL DISKS lor AT (96tpi)
OYSAN 104/10 SS/DD (All)
OYSAN 104/20 DS/DD (IBM)
ACP SS/OD (All)
ACP DS/DD (IBM)
3Vt" DISKETTES
VERBATIM 3'/V' MF350 (MAC)
MAXELLS'/j" MICRODISK (MAC)
8" DISKETTES
VERBATIM B" SS/DD
VERBATIM 8" DS/DD
DYSAN 8" SS/DD
OYSAN 8" OSIDD

27 95
1995

24 95

2695
36.95
32.95
43,95

24,95
17,95
22 95
4395
25.95

5V." OlSK
TUB

$8.95

3V>" DISK
TUB

$14.95

HEAD CLEANING

$9.95

LM10BAH

S3 95

LM300H

.99

LM301N

.35

LM304H

1.89

LM305H

95

LM306H

4 75

LM307N

40

LM306CN

65

LM310CN

1.65

LM311CN

62

LM312H

1.75

LM31BCN

1.45

LM318H

1.55

LM319N

1.19

LM320 (SBe VRs)

LM324N

55

LM339N

95

LM340(see VRs)

LM348N

.95

LM358CN

65

LM359

175

LM360N

2 95

LM370N

4,95

LM373N

3 95

LM376N

3 75

LM377N

190

LM3B0CN

85

LM380N

105

LM381N

1.59

LM382N

1 35

LM3B3N

1.95

LM384N

1.75

LM386N

89

LM3B7N

129

LM389N

1.15

LM392N

.69

LM723N

.48

LM723H

NE531

2,65

NE555

35

NE556

.65

NE556

1.49

NE561

2350

NE564

285

LM565

95

LM566

l.«

LM567

65

NE570

3.8S

NE571

2 90

4505 6.95

4506 1.10

4507 1.10

4508 190

4510 .79

4511 .79

4512 .79

4514 1.18

4515 1.79

4516 1.19
4518 .65
4520 75

4555 95

4556 95
4566 V35
80C95 1.50
80C97 .49
MC14408 12.95
MC14409 12.95
MC14410 9.95
MC14411 11.95
MC14412 1295
MC14419 4.95

74C00

74C74 S.65 I 74C161 S1.15 I 74C373 S2.35
74C85 I.B9 74C175 1.15 74C374 2 35
74C90 1 15 74C240 1 89 74C901 59
74C93 1.15 I 74C244 1.89 I74C922 4.45
MORE74C1N STOCK — ALSO IN CATALOG

LINEAR

NE590 $2 4!

NE592 2.71

LM709N .51

LM709H 1.9(

LM710 .&

LM711 .7:

LM715 3.9

LM723N .5:

LM723H .7

LM733 .9

LM739 IB

LM741CN .3

LM741H .41

LM741N .2

LM747 .6:

LM748 .5:

LM1014 1.1

LM1303 1.9

LM1310 1.4

MC1330 1.6

MC1349 16

MC1350 1.1

MC1358 1.6

MC1372 6.7

LM1414 1.5

LM1558H 2.9

LM1800 2.3

LM1812 8.1

LM1830 3.4

LMI871 5.4

LM1872 5.4

LM1B77 3.2

LM1B89 1.9

LM1B96 1.7

ULN2001 1.9

ULN2003 14

XR2206 3.7

XR2207 2.9

XR2208 2.4

XR2211 37

LM2677P 2.0

LM2878P 2.2

LM2900 8

LM2901 .9

LM2903 .6

LM2907 2.4

LM2917 2.8

LM3900 5

LM3905 1.1

UTTTfiUJil ALL NEW FACTORY BOX
UiLUlIlMlU with 1 Year Warranty!

MODEL 127 20Mb HARD DISK

External Unit with Controller Built-in.

Available with Host Adaptor for IBM-PC,

IBM-XT or Apple II (Add $149.95 for Host

Adaptor).

Reg Retail $1495 ACP $499.00

MODEL 227 20Mb w/TAPE

Complete Subsystem with 20Mb Hard Disk
and High Speed Tape Back-up. Requires
Host Adaptor at $149.95.
Reg Retail $2995 ACP $1399.00

QQQZ3

SUPER NUMERIC KEYPAD

Manufactured by Keytronics. We have sold

ACP $29.95

or 6 for 24.95 ea

1000's of these
Reg Retail $99

LW3909

LM3914 S

LM3915

LM3916

MC4024

MC4044

RC4131

RC4136

RC4151

CA3023

CA3039

CA3046

CA3059

CA3060

CA3065

CA3080

CA3081

CA3082

CA3083

CA3086

CA30B9

CA3096

CA3130

CA3140

CA3146

CA3160

LM13080

LM13600

LM13700

LF347

LF351

LF353

LF355

LF356

LF357

TL071CP

TL072CP

TL074CN

TL081CP

TL064CN

TL494

TL496

TL497

MC3423

MC3453

MC3456

MC3459

MC3469

MC3470

VOLTAGE REGULATORS

7805T Also _-

8. 12. 15, 24V .by

78L05. 12. 15V. .65

76M06C .69

78MG/79MG

78H05KC

7805K Also
12, 15, 24V

.6 75

1.29

1.39

7905K Also

12. 15, 24V
79L05. 12. 15V , , .75

LM309K 1.25

LM317H/K 1.25/385

LM323K

LM337K

LM338K ...6,75

LM350T

LM350K

3.75

SPECIAL PURPOSE CHIPS

95H90 S 9.25

BR1941 11.50

34702 1250

5016 14.95

6116 10.50

5307 10 50

MC4024 375

8038 3.75

5369 3.50

58167 1225
SP1000 Speech

58174 S1125

5832 3.75

AY52376 11.50
AY53600 11.50
2513-001U 9.50
2513-002L 9.50
UPO7201 27.95
3341 4.50

11C90 1325

MC15906 295
S9.95 TR1663

76477

76488 5.75

76489 8.75
AY38910 795
AY3B912 7 95
SSI-263 36.95
Votrax 39.95
DigitalKer 34 95
LM13600N 1.95

5V UART S4 25

DATA ACQUISITION

ADC0800 $14,95

ADC0B04

3.45

DAC0806

1.90

AOC0609

4.45

AOC0816

14.25

A07523JN

1.99

ADC0617 S9.75
DAC0800 4.75
DAC0808 2.85
DAC1020 7.95
DAC1022 5.85
LF353N 1.99

1408L6 $
1406L8 I
DAC100
DAC08
DAC01 I

LF13201N 1

EXPANSION MEMORY
64K UPGRADE (Set of g) $7.95

256K RAMS (Set of 9) $26.95

CABLES/ACCESSORIES

IBM PARALLEL (Shielded) S19.95

IBM SERIAL (Shielded) 19 95

KEYBOARD EXTENSION 4.95

RS232 GENDER CHANGER Male-Male 9,95

RS232 GENDER CHANGER Female-Female 9 95

NULL MODEM ADAPTOR 9.95

DISK DRIVE SPECIALS

Toshiba ND04D DS/DD IBM $89.50

Toshiba ND04E-G for "AT" 99.50

Toshiba ND06DE-G 1.2Mb for "AT"149.50
ALL WITH MOUNTING KIT

7400
7401
7402
7403
7404
7405
7406
7407
7408
7409
7410

7416
7417
7420
7421
7422
7423
7425
7425
7427
7428
7430
7432
7437
7438
7439
7440
7441
7442
7443
7444
7445

74LS0O !

74LS01

74LS02

74LS03

74LS04

74LS05

74LS08

74LS09

74LS10

74LS11

74LS12

74LS13

74LS14

74LS15

74LS20

74LS21

74LS22

74LS26

74LS27

74LS26

74LS30

74LS32

74LS33

74LS37

74LS38

74LS40

74LS42

74LS47

74LS46

74LS51

74LS54

74LS55

74LS73

74LS74

74LS75

74LS76

74LS78

74LS83

74LS85

74LS86

74LS90

74LS92

74LS93

74LS95

74LS96

74LS107

74LS109

74LS112

7446 S
7447

7448
7450
7451
7453
7454
7459
7460
7470
7472
7473
7474
7475
7476
7479
7480
7462
7483
7485
7466
7469
7490
7491
7492
7493

?.;«■;

7495
7496
7497
74100
74107
74109

74123
74125

S 45

.42

74126

44

74128

49

74132

.45

74)36

.75

74141

.85

74142

295

74143

3 70

295

74145

59

74147

1 49

74148

119

74150

109

74151

55

74152

.67

74153

74154

1 19

74155

.69

74156

.69

74157

59

74158

1 65

74159

V59

74160

79

74161

.69

74162

69

74163

69

74144

S9

74165

.69

74166

85

74167

2 75

74170

1 25

74172

4.75

74173

89

74174

69

74175

69

74176 S 69

74177 69

74179 1 34

74180 75

74191 175

74192 1.15

74184 2.25

74185 225

74190 67

74191 G7
4192 67

74193 67

74194 67

74195 67

74196 75

74197 86
74199 1.15
74199 1,15
74221 1 19
74251 75
74273 165
74276 169
74279 75
74293 1 40
74284 2 90

4285 2 90

74290 149

74298 149

74365 .55

74368 ,55

74367 55

74368 55
74390 1 45
74393 133
74490 2.25

74LS113
74LS114
74LS122
74LS123
74LS124
74LS125
74LS126
74LS132
74LS136
74LS138
74LS139
74LS145
74LS148
74LS151
74LS153
74LS154
74LS155
74LS156
74LS157
74LS158
74LS160
74LS161
74LS162
74LS163
74LS164
74LS165
74LS166
74LS16B
74LS169
74LS170
74LS173
74LS174
74LS175
74LS1B1
74LS190
74LS191
74LS192
74LS193
74LS194
74LS195
74LS196
74LS197
74LS221
74LS240
74LS242
74LS243
74LS244
74LS245

74LS247

74LS249

74LS249

74LS251

74LS253

74LS257

74LS258

74LS259

74LS260

74LS26I

74LS266

74LS273

74LS275

74LS279

74LS283

74LS290

74LS293

74LS295

74LS298

74LS324

74LS347

74LS348

74LS352

74LS353

74LS363

74LS365

74LS366

74LS367

74LS368

74LS373

74LS374

74LS375

74LS377

74LS385

74LS386

74LS390

74LS393

74LS395

74LS399

74LS424

74LS668

74LS670

81LS95

81LS96

81LS97

81LS96

25LS2521

25LS2569

74S00/PROMS*

74S158 $.99

745160 2 49

745161 189

745174 119

745175 1.19
74S1B5' 1.49

745194 1.49

745195 1.49

745196 1.49

745240 199

745241 1.99

745242 1.99

745243 1.99

745244 1 .99
74S251 1.19
74S253 1,19
74S2S7
74S25B

74SO0 $29

74S74 S.55

74S02

n

74S85

F.9

7-1.9.:,:;

»

74S86

55

7.: 5-,.;

-5

74S112

55

7-vs:!,

.45

74S113

55

7-^99

99

74S114

55

7.; SOD

.39

74S124 2 69

74S1U

.35

74S132

39

74S11

.35

74S133

■".5

74S15

M

74S134

.50

74S?0

.35

74S135

59

7 ■'.;;:':;

.35

74S136

33

7.:s:<o

as

74St3B

89

7.1SJ;

.45

74S139

HP

7-;s3fi

74S140

55

74S40

.39

74SI51

9?

74S51

35

74S153

96

74S64

39

74S157

.09

74S65

39

CALL FOR 74HC

74S260 S

74S280

74S2B7-

74S2eS'

74S373

74S374

74S387-

74S471"

74S472'

74S473'

74S474*

74S475'

74S570-

74S571-

74S572-

74S573*

74S9-10 .

74S941 ;

ncui y

— »w

He

Dtcfi:

Eac

IZWArxlne.,

CA <I271 3

Edinjjer

Saiita

Ana,

CA

9:!7D5

CALL FOR QUANTITY DISCOUNTS

SPECIAL!! SPECIAL!! SPECIAL!!

EEPROM

PlrlNo.

SN74O0N
SW7401N
SN7402N
SN7403N
SN7404N
SN740SN
SW406N
SW407N
SN7408N
SN7409N
SN7410N
SN741IN
V.-Ji-i>
SN7413N
SN7414N
SN74I6N
5N.-J17N
SN7420N
SN7421N
SN7422N
SN7423N

SN7426N
SN7427N
SN742BN
SN7430N
SN7432N
SN743 N
SN7437N
SII7438N
SN7439N
SN7J40N
SN744IN
SN7442N
SN7443N
SN7444N
SN7WN
SN7446N
SN7447N
SN7448N
SN74S4N
SN7459N
SN7460N
SN7470N
SN7472N
SN7473N

:::■■!:::
.::■:■■;=
(.■■:;-

n ':..■■«
C04042

SN74159N

74

1.49

SN7474N

14

.35

SN74160N

Ifi

79

SN7475N

Hi

39

SN74161N

16

59

SN7476N

H

35

SN74162N

16

H5

SN7479N

14

4 95

SN74163N

lfi

59

SN7480N

14

59

SN74164N

14

69

SN74B2N

U

95

SN74165N

16

m

SN7483N

16

.49

SN74166N

16

69

SN746SN

tl

55

SN74167N

Ifi

2.95

S/J7486N

U

35

SN74170M

16

159

SN74B9N

h

1.95

SN74172N

4,45

SN7490N

11

-39

SN74173N

111

75

SN7491N

14

SN74174N

16

VI

SN7492N

U

49

SN7417SN

S9

SW493N

14

.35

SN74176N

14

HH

SN7494N

H

89

SN74177N

(W

SN7495N

11

49

SN74179N

18

149

SN7496N

15

.65

SN74180N

69

SN7497N

Ih

2.69

SN74181N

74

1.95

SN7410ON

71

1.75

SN74182N

lfi

7S

SN7410SN

14

99

SN741B4N

195

SN74107N

11

.19

SN741B5N

16

195

SN74109N

16

39

SN74189N

IE

SN741I6N

74

149

SN74190N

16

89

SN74121N

H

29

SM74I91N

IE

89

SN74122N

14

45

SN74I92N

IE

69

SN74123N

IB

.49

SN74193N

IE

69

SN74125N

u

.45

SN74194I1

IE

79

SN74126N

14

.49

SH74195H

IE

79

SN74128N

tl

49

SN74196H

<N

SN74132N

U

49

SN74197N

69

SW74136N

14

69

SN74198N

74

135

SM7414JN

16

89

SN74199N

SH74142N

||

295

SN74221N

lb

89

SN74143N

395

SN7425IN

IE

89

SN74144N

71

2.95

SN74273N

71)

195

SN74145N

Ih

65

SN74276N

ro-

7 4H

SN74147N

Ih

169

SN74279N

ifi

59

SN7414BN

11

69

SN74283N

16

1.39

SN74150N

71

1.29

SN74284N

16

7 95

IB

.29

SN74285N

lfi

7 95

SN74152N

11

J3

SN74365N

lfi

59

II

35

in

Ifi

125

SN74367N

IE

59

||

.65

SN74157N

lfi

49

SN74390N

16

1.49

5N7415&N

16

1.39

SN74393N

14

1 ■'.'..

(M) MOTOROLA

MC68701 - Microcomputer with EPROM

The MC6B701 Is an 8-blt single chip microcomputer unit (MCU) which significantly
enhances the capabilities ol the MC6B00 family of parts On-chip resources include
204B byles ol EPROM. 12B bytes of RAM. Serial Communications Interface (SCI),
parallell/Q.anda threefunction ProgrammableTlmer,

MC68701 $24.95

CUSTOM COMMODORE CHIPS
for VlC-20, C-64 and C-128 Personal Computers

Part No. Description

•6510 CPU S19.95

♦6525 W\ S20.95

•SPECS. AVAILABLE « $1.50 EA.

•6526
•6560
•6567

CIA S25.95

VIC-1 S29.95

V1C-II S44.95

•6581 SID . . S32.95

82S100PLA PLA . . $37.95

NOTE:82S100= U17 (C-64)

MICROPROCESSOR COMPONENTS

2816A 24 2048x8 16K E2PR0M 350ns. . $8.95

Features: • Onboard Address/Data Letches ■ Auto-Timed Byte Write (on
chic timer) ■ 5V Erase/Wril e/Reod • Optional High Voltage Erase/Program
(9V-15V) ■ Power Up/Down Write Protection ■ Auto Erase before Write

The 2B16A is an ideal nonvolatile memory providing In-syslem allerabltity
with the same ease and wilh the same leatures as 2KxB Static RAMj

Digitalker

DT1050-

Itnauft trwtHwL etc. The DI1050 is a standard DiGfTALKER kji
and useful worts, 2 tones, and 5 dilterent silence durations. The words and tones line In
assigned drsnsae addresses, making it pontile to output single woos orwordsaFotevarfed
intophrases or even sen fences. The "voce" outpvl ol the OT1050 is s highly mWliaiWe mate
voice. The 0TIB50 cnmK il i Spec* fnwisnr ati».llMS4l04(4r>fn>)t<>4 rw Settd) NCKj
MMSZIEUSSI «s4 NKS216ISSR2 (24 »itong fitt I Kisb Nbnf fed in) j rtraaanaM tduufc
dittos nr the ifitfoSra died

DT1 050 Digitalker"' $24.95 ea.

MM54104 Processor Chip $12.95 ea.

DT1 057-Etpj-Js R( DIlDSOwcilLlirj hw I37 U wer 2M«r!i. Incl 2 HJHtaiad :j«i

Part No. DT1057 $11.95 ea.

INTERSIL

FE0202D U 4 0v(LCOOont»v1or72Hn.4 721 1M1PL | Z95

FE02030 40 3<» Ehfl.t LCD OupUy tor T106 & 7 1 16 1295

7045IPI 28 CM OS Precision Timer 11.95

7045EV/KJ1 78 StofjwstchChip.XTl. (Evaluation Kit) 16.95

7106CPI. 40 31$ Dmil Art) (LCDDnve) 8.95

7106EV/Kit «0 IC, Circml Sods, Display (Evaluation Kii> 46.95

7107CPI. 40 3V5 Dioil A/0 (LED Drive) B95

7107EV/KH 40 IC. CircurlBoarU. Display (Evaluation Kit) 4695

7116CPL 40 3vt DigitA(DLCO 0s. HLD 8.95

7201IUS Lmiaatte/y Vott. indicator 2.29

7205IPG Z4 CMOS LED Sloowstch/Vimer 14.95

7205EW01 J« StojwatchChip.XJL (EvaluaOonKii) 16.95

7206CJPE 16 Tone GeiieralM 4.95

7206CEV/1W 16 TcneGeneratorCAip.XTHEvaluaifflnKi!) 7.95

7207AIPO 14 Osdilatw ConutHlet 5.95

7207AEVi'Kit 14 Fteq Counter CTap. XTt (Evatuabon Kit) 8.49

72U1PI. 40 4 Oigil UX) Display 0ecoder/0rr*r (Tn. compatinie) 7.95

7211MR 40 4 0igi1UX)Displ3yfJecooern>ver(MrarjpTO.a)mp3 0. . . 8.49

7215IPG 24 4Func CMOSStopwatdiCKT 16.95

7215EV/Kit 24 4 Func. Stopwaicft Cmp.XTL (Evalualon Kit) 1949

7216AUI 28 8 0igitUnivCounlerCA... 31.49

7216DIPI 28 8 DigitFreo. CounterC C. . 21.49

72171JI 28 4 DigitLEDUp/Down CounteiCA 10.95

7217AIP1 28 4 Digil LED Up/Dawn Coutiler C C B 95

72241PI 40 LCD 4ii Oigil Up Counter ORl 1095

7226AEV/KH 40 5 Funcnon Countw Chip, XTL (Ewilualion Kit) 9995

30009 1985 Intersil Data Book H075 P5D $9.95

74HC HIGH SPEED CMOS

74HC02

14

39

74HC147

16

.99

74HC251

16

,79

74HC03

14

.39

74HC151

16

.79

74HC253

79

74HC04

14

39

74HC153

16

79

74HC257

16

79

74HCU04

14

.39

74HC154

74

1.95

74HC259

16

119

74HC0S

14

.39

74HC157

16

.79

74HC266

69

74HC10

14

.39

74HC15B

16

79

74HC273

20

179

74HC11

14

.39

74HC160

16

74HC28C

14

295

74HC14

14

.09

74HC161

16

69

74HC299

70

319

74HC20

14

.39

74HC162

16

89

74HC366

16

149

74HC27

14

.39

74HC163

16

69

74HC367

16

149

74HC30

14

39

74HC164

14

.99

74HC373

20

1.49

74HC32

14

.45

74HCI65

16

1.49

74HC374

20

149

74HC42

16

.75

74HC166

Ifi

195

74HC390

16

119

74HC5I

14

.39

74HC173

16

.89

74HC393

14

1.19

74HC58

14

.39

74HC174

16

.89

74HC533

70

74HC73

14

.45

74HC175

IH

.89

74HC534

70

74NC74

14

.45

74UC190

16

119

74HC595

16

195

IH

.69

in

1.19

74HC888

7(1

IB

.69

74HC192

16

.99

74HC4024

74HC65

lfi

119

74HC193

lfi

.99

16

74HC86

14

.59

74HC194

16

.89

16
16

74HCI07
74HC109

14

16

.49
.49

74HC195
74HC221

16
16

.89

1.95

74HC4060
74HC4075

1 19
.49

74HC112

Ifi

.49

74HC237

Ifi

1.19

74)(C123

16

1.19

74HC240

21)

1.39

16

74HC125

14

.99

74HC241

211

139

?4

74HC132

14

.79

74HC242

14

1,39

74HC4536

18

74HC137

IH

1.19

74HC243

1.39

74HC4S43

16

/%

74HC138

16

.79

74HC244

20

1.49

74HCU04I

unbuffered.

74CO0

14

.29

74C-

^

'lI'H

74C373

20

1.95

74C04

14

.»

74C901

14

49

74C08

14

.3S

74C902

14

.49

74C10

14

.29

74C903

14

.49

74CI4

14

.49

74C906

14

49

74C20

.29

74C90?

59

74C30

14

29

89

74C91 1

28

7 95

74C32

14

35

16

74C912

23

7 95

74C42

IH

89

.99

74C915

16

1.19

74C48

Ifi

1.19

74C917

'it

795

74C73

14

.49

74C920

U

9 95

74C74

14

.49

74C921

16

HH5

74CS5

lfi

1.19

74C922

16

3.95

74C86

.29

74C923

70

3 95

74C89

IB

3.95

74C925

16

4.95

74C90

14

B9

74C195

16

99

74C926

16

495

74C93

14

X

74C221

16

1.19

74C930

18

9.95

74C95

14

99

74C240

70

1.59

80C95

16

69

74C107

14

.55

74C244

20

1.59

80C97

16

.69

DSM26CN

TL064CH 1

TL071CP

TL072CP

TL074CN 1

TL081CP

TL082CP

T1064CN 1

LM109K

LdOOICN

LM302H

LM304H

LM306H

IM307CU

U\B08CN

LM3D9K

LM310CN

LM311CN

LM312H

LM317T

LM317K

LM318CH

LM31OT

UO20K-5

IM320K-12

LM320K15

LM320K-24

LM320T-5

LM320T-15
LM320M4
LK022H I
LM323>;
Ut324N 1
LM329DZ
LM331M
LM334Z

umez

LM337MP

LM337T

LM338K

UJI339N 1

LMJ40if5

LM340K-12

UO40K-15

LM340K-24

IM340T-5

LM340T-12

LM340T-15

LM340T-24

LF347H I

IM343N 1

LF353N 8

LF355N 6

LF356N 8

LM356N 6

IM 5SN 14

IM360N 8

LM361N 14

U07WI 14

LM373N 14

LM377N 14

LM380CH 6

LM3B0N 14

LM381N 14

LM382N 14

LM364N 14

LM386N-3 8

LM387N 6

IW389N IB

Lr.t391N-80 16

LM392N 8

LM393.N 6

Lf396N 6
LM399H

LF412WI 6

TL494CN 16

TL496CP 6

TL497ACN 14

NE531V 6
NE540H (C540HI

NE544N 14

NE555V 6

XH1555 6

LM55W 14

NE558N 16

NE564N 16

IM565N 14

LM566CN 6

U«7V 1

NE570N 16

ME57IN 16

ME592N 14

umm 14

Lh(711N 14

UI723N 14

LM733N 14

LM739H 14

LM741CN 6

LM747N 14

LM74SN 8
UA760HC

1>^1456V 6

LM1456CN 8

LM1483N 14

LM1489H 14

LM149GN 14
U^1605CK

W1871N 16

LM1872N 18

LMI877N-9 14

LM1889N 16

LM1B9CN 14
UC0O2T

ULN2003A 16

XH2206 16

XR2207 14

XF2208 16

XB2211 14
LW2B77P
LM2878P

LM2901N 14

LM2902N 14

LM2907N 14

LM2917N 8
LM293ST

UI39O0N 14

LM3905OI 6

LAQ909N 8

LM3911N 6

LM39I4M 16

LM3915N 16

LM3916N 16

RC4136N 14

RC415INB 6

RC4193N6 8

LM4250CN 6

NE5532 6

NE5534 6
761.05A
7ai2A
79L05A
7SM0SHH

K3.8038 14

LM13080N 6

U4i3600N 16

75477 6

76002 14

76477 28

30003 1982 Nat. LinearData Book (i9S2pgv> . . $14.95

Worldwide • Since 1974

• QUALITY COMPONENTS - COMPETITIVE PRICING
• PROMPT DELIVERY

1 Mail Order Electronics -Worldwide

J ELECTRONICS

Commodore 41 Accessories

RS232 Adapter
forVIC-20and
Commodore 64

Th e JE232CM allows connection o f standard serial RS232
printers, modems, etc. to your VIC-20 and C-64. A 4-pole
switch allows the inversion of the 4 control lines. Com-
plete installation and operation instructions included.

• Plugs into User Port • Provides Standard RS232 signal
levels • Uses 6 signals {Transmit, Receive, Clear to Send,
Request to Send, Data Terminal Ready, Data Set Ready).

JE232CM $39.95

VOICE SYNTHESIZER

FOR COMMODORE VIC-20 AND C-64

Plug-In — Talking in Minutes!

JE520CM $99.95

300 BAUD AUTO MODEM
Mitey-Mo (For C-64) $74.95

PARALLEL PRINTER INTERFACE

FREE 4K Buffer Included!

MW350 (FbrVIC-20,C-64&C-128) $69.95

TRS-80 Accessories

EXPAND TRS-80 MEMORY

TRS-80 MODEL I, III

Each Ki! comes complete with eight MM5290 (UP04 1 6 / 4 1 1 6 ) 1 6 K Dynamic
RjAMs and documentation lor conversion, Model 1 ; 1 6 K equipped with Ex-
pansion Interlace can be expanded to 48K with 2 Kits. Model III: Can be
expanded trom 16K to 4BK using 2 Kits. Each Kit will expand computer by
16K increments.

TRS-16K3 200ns (Model 111) $5.95

TRS-16K4 250ns (Model 1) $5.49

TRS-80 COLOR AND COLOR II

Easy to Install Kit comes complete with 8 each 4T64N-20 (200ns) 64K
Dynamic RAMs and documenlalion lor conversion. Converls TRS-80 Color
Computers with D, E. ET, F and NC Circuit boards to 32K. Also converts
TRS-80 Color Computer II to 64K. Rex DOS or OS-9 required to utilize
tun 64K BAM on all computers.

TRS-64K-2 $9.95

TRS-80 MODEL 4, 4P

Easy to Inslal I Kits come complete with: TnS-64K-2 (8ea. 41 64N-20(200nr|
64K Dynamic RAMs); TRS-64K-2PAL (8 ea. 41 64's plus PAL chip) and docu-
mentation lor conversion.
TRS-64K-2 Expands Model 4 from 16K-64K or

ModeJ4P(rom84K-128K. $ 9.95

TRS-64K2PAL Expands Model 4 from 64K to 128K $29,95

• TRS-80 Model 100 • NEC • Olivetti

Easy to Install Module plugsrlghtintothe socKet Increasing memorylnSK
Increments. Three modules will increase your memory tolls lull capacity.
Complete with module and documentation for installation.

M I008K (TRS-80 Model 100 Expansion) $29.95 ©a. or 3/S79.9S

NEC8KR (NEC PC-8201A) $29.95 ea. or 3/S79.95

OM108K (Olivetti M10) $29.95 ea. or 3/S79.95

TANDY 200

Easy to Install module plugs fight into the socket increasing memory in
24K increments Complete with module and documentation lor installation.
M200R (Tandy 200 Expansion). . . S99.95 ea. Of 2/$1 89.95

PROMETHEUS MODEMS

Intelligent 1200/300

Baud Modem with Real

Time Clock/Calendar

The ProModem~ is a Bell 212A (1200/300) intelligent
stand-alone modem • Hayes command set compatible
plus an additional extended command set • Shown with
alphanumeric display option.

PM1200 RS-232 Stand-Alone Unit $299.95

OPTIONS FOR ProModem 1200

PM-COM (ProCom Communication Software). $ 79.95

Please specilyOperating System -

Apple: ProDOS or CP/M - or

IBM: PC DOS or MS DOS

PM-OP512K (Communication Buffer Option) $129.95

BUF512K (512K Memory for PM-0P512K) $ 54,95

PM-ALP (Alphanumeric D.splay) $ 79.95

PM-Special#2 (Includes PM-0P512K.

BUF512K and PM-ALP) $249.95

The ProModem 1200B/BS is a 1200/300 baud modem
card which plugs into IBM PC and XT Provides a third
serial Comport. Two versions available: 1200B (without
software) and 1200BS (with software). The PM1200BS
is supplied with powerful MITE communications software
from Mycroft Labs. Software available: PC DOS or MS DOS.

PM1200B (without Software) $239.95

PM1200BS (with MITE Software) $274.95

Muffin-Style & Sprite-Style Fans

MUF60 (SPN3-15-2462)

Howard Industries (4.68"sq.,60cfm).

SU2C7

EG&GRotron (3.125" sq, 20 elm) .

J

APPLE * COMPATIBLE COMPUTER ACCESSORIES

Five Key 128K RAM Card XAM

S™ Software Programs! For Apple II, II + and lie* D '" s *-'

" " ' The JE66B is lunclitnally compalible with ihe Apple II language card and can be

utilized wilh all solfware that can be used with a standard 16K card The JE866
requires no modifications lo your Apple computer. Five key software programs are
included Memory Management Syslem, utilities diagnostics, demos, and RAM disk
emulators lor DOS 3 3, CP/M and Apple Pascal Also teaturesDOS relocalor Complete
w/inslructions. (Note:CP/M-Versions 2.2 orearllor - PASCAL-Versions 1.1 orearlier)

JE868 (Expand-A-RAM) $119.95

II^DTWiliW )<? Applesurance Diagnostic Disk Controller Card
Prevents Crashes! For Apple II, 11+ and lie*

The JE877serves as a diagnostic tool, an assurance/maintenance tool and a dual
disk drive controller. The JE877 will verily and check the operalmg hardware of
your system each lime you turn on your Apple tl. 11+ or We' Test your RAM flOM
CPU. and disk drives Diagnostic routines may be cancelled at the touch of a key
Complele with instructions

JE877 (DRV-1 /Applesurance II) S69.95

Parallel Printer Card
For Apple II, II + and He*

The JE880 Printer Interface board is an intelligent interlace to most of todays
popular dot-matrix graphics printers The JE880 is fully compalible with Apple CP/M.
Apple Pascal (or FORTRAN), and most other operaling systems and software
packages available lorApplell,ll+ and /.fe'The JEBB0 is shipped conligured lorthe
Centronics standard and can be re-conligured lor olher standards it necessary
Advanced text printing leatures include video screen echo ON or OFF. auto /disable
linefeed atler carnage return, set/clear Ihe Blhbilot Iheoutpuloata.sellell margin
and more! Complele with instruclions.

JE880 (PRT-1) $59.95

Parallel/Serial Buffer Card
For Apple II, II+ and lie*

TheJEBB3 provideslhe userwithupto64Koladditionalor buffered memory n 8 pages
of information), Using the parallel lumper cable supplied, the JEB83 will attach to the
JEB80 (above) Parallel Card needed lor operation TheJEB83 includes a standard
parallel input with both parallel and serial (RS232) buffered outputs With these
leaturesyou mayaccess and butter inlormation to twotypes ol printers lone serial,
one parallel) simultaneously Completewilhinstructions

JE883 (P/S Buffer) $79.95

1HSCMMM&

0*#

APPLE™ Compatible

5W Half-Height Disk Drive

For Apple II, II+ and He'

$*

2 9

.95

• Direct drive • 143K lormatted storage -3 5 tracks ■ Super
quiel • Works wilh Apple Controllers or olher compatibles
(JEB75) (right) - Complele with connector - just plug tnto
your controller • Sae: 5VVW x 1 %"H x 6"D ■ Weight; 4 lbs.

ADD-12 $129.95

*3L

APPLE™

Compatible

5V4" Disk Drive

and Controller

Card for

Apple II, II+ and lie

• Beltdriven • 143K lormalted storage • ColormatchesApple
Computer •VVorks with Appla Controller or olher Appla*
compalible controllers (JEB75) • Completewilh connector-
jusl plug into your disk controller card ■ 35 Iracks ■ Size:
6"W x 3VH x B-9/16-D • Weight: 4 lbs.

ADD-51 4 (Disk Dnv«) $139.95

JE875 (Controller Card) $ 49.95

APPLE™ lie Compatible
5 1 /4" Half-Height Disk Drive

Same specs as ADD-12 except no controller necessary.

ADD-llc. $129.95

Additional Apple* Compatible Products

Key: a = Apple II or II+ b = Apple //e

APF-1 Cooling Fan with surge protection • Key: (a,b) $ 39.95

KHP4007 SwitchingPower Supply • Key: (a.b) $ 39.95

JE614 Numeric/Aux. Keypad - 11 accessible functions 'Key: (b) $ 49.95

JE860 16K RAM Card (Note: CP/M Versions 2.2 or earlier) • Key: (a). ... $ 39.95

JE864 80-Column plus 64K RAM • Key: (b) $ 69.95

AMON 12" Green Monitor with swivel stand • Key: (a, b & He) $ 99.95

KB-EA1 Apple Keyboard and Case • Key: (a) $ 99.95

JE520AP Voice Synthesizer - Plug-in. User Ready • Key: (a,b) $119.95

PM1200A Prometheus Internal Modem - 2 cards • Key: (a,b) $299.95

PM1200M Prometheus Macintosh Ext. Modem • Key: (Macintosh) $349.95

General Application Power Supplies

Power/Mate Corp. REGULATED POWER SUPPLY

• Input: 105-125/210-250VAC @ 47-63Hz • Line regulation:
±0.05% • Three mounting surfaces • Overvoltage protection • UL
recognized • CSA certified

PattNo. Output Slie Weigh! Price

EMA5/6B 5V@3A/6V@2.5A 4?V'Lx4"Wx2WH 2lbs. $29.95
EMA5/6C 5V@6A/6V@5A 5%"LxWWx2 7 /fe"H 4lbS. S39.95

4-CHANNEL SWITCHING POWER SUPPLY

• Microprocessor, mini-computer, terminal, medical equipment and
process control applications • Input: 90-1 30V AC, 47-440HZ • Out-
put: +5VDC @ 5A, -5VDC @ 1A; +12VDC @ 1A, -12VDC @ 1A

• Line regulations: ±0.2% • Ripple: 30mV p-p • Load regulation:
±1% • Overcurrent protection • Adj: 5V main output ±10% • Size:
6WLx 1%"W x 4-15/16"H • Weight: 1fe lbs.

FCS-6Q4A. $59.95

DATA BOOKS

210830 Intel Memory Components Hndbk. (1983/84) $14.95

Contains ,-i .';;■;.! :;,;ti>ir; 'l-'Vs. Article Reprints. Dala SneelsS other

design information on Intel's R Ms, DRAMs, EPROMs. E'PROMsand

BubDI e Memories (880 pages)
230843 Intel Microsystem Components Hndbk. (1983/84) S19.9S

Contains Oata Sneels on allol Intel's Microprocessors a peripherals -

2 slurries (2575 pages).

30022 National Logic Data Book Set (1984) $24.95

Volumes I S II (3485 pages).

Contains inlormalion on Nalionat'aTTL producllineand CD4000 family.

This Includes 7400. 741. S, AS. LS and ALS Series devices, and

MM54HC / 74HC / 54HCT / 74HCT High Speed Micro CMOS tamily.

MM54C / 74C lamlly. and CMOS LSI / VLSI

IBM® Accessories

IBM PC/XT Compatible
Keyboard

| LLJiU LJ-1..1 L_1I I Mtt U '

/ m rrrvH"! mm \ iMMrllMPEvA

/ 4MwP M

IBM-5151 (Equlvaientlo Keyironlcs- 5151) $129.95

Additional Add-Ons Available!

IBM-Case ComputerCase $ 59.95

IBM-KB Keyboard $ 79.95

IBM-FCC Disk Controller $ 79.95

IBM-MCC Monochrome Card $ 99.95

IBM-MON 12" Monochrome Monitor . $109.95

IBM-ICB Color Card w/Printer Port .$149.95

IBM-E384K 384K RAM Card $199.95

IBM-MB Motherboard $349.95

IBM-10MBK 10MB HH Hard Kit $599.95

IBM-20MBK 20MB HH Hard Kit. $799.95

IBM PCXT Equivalent
130 Watt Power Supply

UPGRADE YOUR PCI

■ Input: 110V@60Hz- Output: +5VDC@ 15A. -5VDC @
0.5A, + 1 2VDC @ 4.2A, - 1 2VDC @ 0.5A • Plug compatible
connectors • Fits into IBM PC • Weight: 6 lbs.

IBM-PS $99.95

DISK DRIVES

Documentation
Included

RFD480 (Remex5v< M DSfull-ht.) $69.95

FD55B (Teac 5V4" DS half-ht.) $99.95

SA455 (Shugart 5'/4"DS half-ht.). .. . $99.95

TM100-2 (Tandon 5V DS full-ht.) $99.95

JMR 5W DISK DRIVE ENCLOSURES

Complete with power supply, switch, power cord,
fuseholder and connectors

DDE-1 FH (Houses 1 lull-ht. 5V«" floppy drive) . . $ 69.95
DDE-2HH (Houses 2 hAH-ht. 5V c _ QC

floppy drives - vertical) 3> lO.UO

HDDE-1FH (Houses I hard drive) $199.95

General Application Keyboards

Mitsumi 54-Key

Unencoded

Keyboard

SUP

• SPST keyswitches • 20 pin ribbon cable connection

• Low profile keys • Features: cursor controls, control,
caps (lock), function, enter and shift keys • Color (key-
caps): grey ■ Weight: 1 lb. ■ Pinout incl. • Size: 13tfTL x

VW x

4"H

KB54 $9.95

74-Key
ASCII

Cherry

E

• ' ;

•i- li i-H.M: ki'i 1 M1'<nl

Keyboard '\

jj [■(■! f ui r i

• 7-bit parallel ASCII • Full Upper Case. Full Lower Case
except I, m, n, o and p. ■ Cursor keypad • SPST mechani-
cal keyswitches • 26-pin header connector • Color: white

• Size: 18"Lx 6%"W x WH • Spec included
KB8201 (1500 available) $14.95

UV-EPROM ERASER

Erases all EPROMs. Erases up to 8 chips within 2 1 minutes (T chip
in 15 minutes). Maintains constant exposure distance of one inch.
Speciaiconductive loam liner eliminates static build-up. Built-in
safety lock to prevent UV exposure. Compact — only 9.00'L x
3.70 "W x 2.60H. Complete with holding tray for 8 chips.

DE-4 UV-EPROM Eraser $74.95

UVS-11EL Replacement Bulb $17.95

Spec. Sheets - 300 each
Prices Subject to Change

$20 Minimum Order - U.S. Funds Only
Shipping: Add 5% plus $1.50 Insurance

Send stamped,

self -addressed envelope

to receive a Quarterly

Sales Flyer - FREE!

2/86

California Residents: Add 6% or 6 1 /2% Sales Tax

Send $1.00 Postage for a

FREE

1986JAMECO

CATALOG

1355 SHOREWAY ROAD, BELMONT, CA 94002 • PHONE ORDERS WELCOME 415-592-8097 Telex: 176043

TM ESTABLISHED 1977

ORDERS 800-528-3138

TECH. SALES/CUST. SERVICE 602-991-7870
TELEX 165025 FTCC SEC PHX

Computer Systems

CO

a

Q)

</)

CO

O

Q)

SZ

£

in

<

</>

UJ
QC
Q.

S

s

UJ

a.

o
o
<

o

z

UJ

h-

O

UJ

<

UJ

CompuPro 816/286-H40 w/256K
SPUZ & .5MDrv/H. $$SPECIAL...
TOO LOW TO ADVERTISE!!!

VIASYN 816/C2 wl 80286, 512K RAM, SPUZ-256, 40Mb
H.D., 10Mb Tape. 5'/<" 96TPI FLPY, CDOS 816/286,

NewWord & Supercalc II REDUCED!! $7,499

VIASYN CORE SYSTEM W/256K RAM. I/F-4, Syst.
Supp. 1. ENCL. 2D, Disk 1A, Disk 3. 5'/<" FLPY, & 10Mb
H.D. Add Your Choice of CPU & Oper. Sys. . . . $3,939

VIASYN 816/10-H40 w/Tape & 1 Mb MDrv $5,177

CALL FOR OTHER SYSTEM CONFIGURATIONS

O corona
doto systems, inc.

CORONA PPC-400-22 Portable 256K, Dual Flpy's.
640X400 GRN Monitor. 4 Expan. Slots, Serial & Paral.

Ports, MS DOS, GW-Basic & PC-Tutor $1,279

CORONA PPC-400-XT Portable w/20Mb H.D. . $1,895
CORONA PPC-400-XT Portable w/40Mb H.D. . $2,198
CORONA PC-400-22 Desk TOP PC Same Ful Featured
PC-Like The Portable w/14" Green Tilt & Swivel

Monitor $1 ,525

CORONA PC-400-HD2 w/10Mb HARD DISK .. $2,049
For 20Mb Add $195/For 40Mb Add $450

data
systems

PC COMPATIBLE & FASTER TOO!

ZENITH Z-158 PC-DESK TOP SYSTEM: 256K RAM, 2
DSDD FLPY DRIVES, Serial, Paral. Monochrome &
Color Composite & RGB Color Ports, & MS-DOS w/4.77
& 8 MHZ CPU Clock Rates, G or A Monitor . . . $1,895

Z158 with Floppy & 20Mb KD. DRVS $2,395

Z158 with Floppy & 40Mb H.D. DRVS $2,798

% HT 10Mb TAPE OPTION INT $498/ EXT $598

Z-148 PC W/256K. 2 FLPYS. MS-DOS, 4.77 & 8MHz,

Serial & Parallel Ports, Amber Monitor $1,219

Z-138 PCTRANSPORTABLE24Lbs.320K. Dual FLPYS,
7" Amber Screen, MS-DOS, 4.77 & 8MHz, Serial &

Parallel Ports $1,499

Z-171 Lap-Top Portable, Dual Drvs., 640K, MS-DOS
Battery, Padded Carrying Case, Video RGB & CMPST.,
Hayes Compatible 300/1200 Baud Modem $2,739

AATARI

Power Without the Price'"

MACKINTOSCH'

520 ST
FREE PRINTER!

COLOR SYSTEM 32/16 BIT 68000 CPU, 512K RAM,
500K DRIVE, 4 COLOR GRAPHICS 640X200 RES.,
MENU DU MOUSE, TOS, BASIC & LOGO SOFTWARE,
MUSIC GENERATOR, PARA., SERIAL & JOYSTICK
PORTS, CLOCK & TERMINAL EMULATOR .. $999.95
JACINTOSCH 520ST Monochrome 640x400 . $799.95
SHANNER V.I.P.Protessional Better Than 1-2-3 . $169

ATARI COMMUNICATIONS PACKAGE BY S-100:

PROMETHEUS 1200 MODEM. CABLE. & CHAT
SOFTWARE RETAILS FOR $545, NOW $329

Hard Disk/Tape Subsystems

AT-INSIDER. PC-INSIDER. PC-OUTSIDER HARD
DISK SERIES FOR IBM. BOOTS FROM HARD DISK,
FORMATTED Wl CONTROLLER & ALL NECESSARY
CABLES, HARDWARE & P/S or PC STYLE CABINET.

PC-INSIDER-33 33Mb Formatted $939

PC-OUTSIDER-33 W/T 33Mb & 10Mb Tape . . . $1,539

PC-INSIDER-72 72Mb Formatted $2,225

PC-OUTSIDER-72 W/T 72Mb & 60Mb Tape . . . $3,195

PC-INSIDER-116 116Mb Formatted $3,989

PC-OUTSIDER-116 W/T 116Mb & 60Mb Tape . $5,395

AT-INSIDER-33 33Mb Formatted $1,129

AT-INSIDER-66 66Mb Formatted $1,795

AT-INSIDER-120 120Mb Formatted $3,895

ALLOY PC-BACKUP 17.7Mb TAPE $1,729

ALLOY PC-OICTAPE Up to 69Mb $1,799

ALLOY PC-9TRACK 42Mb $4,995

IRWIN 10Mb Tape Drive INT S498/EX7 $598

TECMAR QIC60 TAPE For PCS $1 ,299

TECMAR QIC60 HOST l/F Board $109

TECMAR 40200 II Slot Expan. Chassis w/ 10Mb $1,795
TECMAR 404 70 33Mb Fixed/5Mb Removable In 11 Slot

Expansion Chassis $2,495

TECMAR 73200 MACDRIVE 10Mb ■* HT. with Software

and Hardware For Easy Installation $1,325

TECMAR 73210 MACDRIVE with 10Mb Fixed And 5Mb

Removable Cartridge $2,195

WANGTEK PC-36 60Mb Tape Internal-Same As

TECMAR QIC60 Tape For PC'S $1,199

CALL For DLR &/or QTY. PRICES on HARD DISKS:

MICROPOLIS 7303 43Mb 30MS $1,195

MICROPOLIS 7323 43Mb 25MS $1,300

QUAMTUM 0540 40Mb ...... REDUCEDII$1,095

Mitsubishi Mqpgor Seagate

MiniScribe Amcodyne

S-100 BUS SUBSYSTEMS Supporting Turbodos.
Concur. Dos, CP/M 80 & 816 Operating SystemsCALL

DRIVE SUBSYSTEMS FOR COMPUPRO

with DISK 3, CABINET. P/S, FAN, CABLES, ETC , :.. . , .

•20Mb EPSON, SEAGATE, ETC. . . $1,139

^7Mb QUANTUM 0540 ....', $1,775

•45Mb MICROPOLIS 1304 2,179

• 72Mb 1325....$2,195/XT-1085 or M6085 $2,295

•89Mb MAXTOR XT-1105 $3,695

• 116Mb MAXTOR XT-1140 $4,395

10Mb TAPE INTERNAL S498/EXTERNAL $598

ALLOY /TS-700+ 9TRACK 42Mb/S-100 $4,995

ALLOY IDXCS-100T 17.7Mb Tape Subsystem . $1,719

Floppy Disk Drives

MITSUBISHI 2894 STD 8".. $395/2896 Vfc HT 8" . . $369

MITSUBISHI 4853...S119/TEAC FD55F 96TPI $99

TANDON TM100-2A $115

TEAC FD558... $88/MITSUBISHI MF-501A 48TPI. $95

Diskettes & Cartridges

3M TAPES In Stock 300XL&600A S29.95/7000A $19.95

DYSAN SSDD 3.5"..', $29.39/5'//" $22.95

DYSAN DSDD 3.5" $35.00/5' V $24.95

DYSAN 3740/2D 8" DSDD $31

DYSAN HARD DISK CARTRIDGES 8" $150

DYSAN DSDD 5'.V'....$28/UHI-96TPI IBM-AT $59

FUJI 57/' SSDD $1 5/5'//' DSDD $19

FUJI FD2D-1024 8" DSDD $29

Diagnostic-Keyboards-Voice

DATACOM TRI-STATE RS232V.24 Break-out Box$189

DYSAN DISK DRIVE INTERROGATOR $115

DYSAN DDD Digital Diagnostic Disk . SS S30.DS $40
DYSAN AAD Analog Alignment Disk.. SS $25,DS $50
RID DYMEK FLPY DRV. DIAGNOSTIC DISKETTE $29

FLUKE 77 DVM with Holster $129

KEYTRONICS 5750. ..$169 / 5757...S179 / 5753. . . $299
VOTRAX PERSONAL SPEECH SYSTEM '$295

Power Solutions

Chips

We Have Some of the LOWEST PRICES in the Nation!!
64K, 256K, 8087 & 80287 CALL

PC/XT REPLACEMENT P/S 130/150 WATT . . S89/S99

SAFT SPS 400VA 400 WATT & SINE WAVE $475

SAFT SPS1000VA 1000 WATT/SINE WAVE $999

SOLA 750/4500 WATT HI-INRUSH UPS $1,859

TRIPPLITE ISOBAR Line Suppressor-Filters from $35
TRIPPLITE BC-425-FC 425 Watts 15-20 Minutes. $398

TRIPPLITE BC-1000 Watts 20-30 Minutes $925

TRIPPLITE LC-1800 Conditioner/Stabilizer $215

TRIPPLITE COMMAND CONSOLE CCI 8-12.... $110

PC & AT Multifunction/Slave Bds.

WeHavea Good Selectionof Multifunction and Memory
Boards for PC. XT. AT, JR. AT & T. and PC Portables
INTEL ABOVE BOARD AT 128K-4Mb w/Expanded
Mem. SW to allow CPU to Address all Avail. Mem. $459
LASER DISK I/O FLPY CTRL. S,P & G Ports, CLK-CAL,

Ram-Disk & Print Spool, MS-DOS $195

MACROTECH MSR-A T Unpopulated to 3Mb For PC/AT

1 20mSEC From $269

STB BIG BYTE 64K $122

STB GRANDE BYTE 128K $225

STB RIO PLUS II 64K-512K. S,P, Clock $216

STB SUPER RIO 256K. CLK, S.P & G Ports $319

STB RIO GRANDE PC-AT 128K, -1.5Mb, 2S.P&G $319
TECMAR CAPTAIN UNPOP w/Treasure Chest . . $154
TECMAR EXPANSION CHASSIS With 8 Slots... $675
TECMAR MAESTRO Unpopulated for IBM-AT .. $325

TECMAR MAESTRO For PC/AT 2.5Mb $775

TECMAR WAVE 64K to 256K Fits XT Short Slot . $179

PC & AT Slave Boards/Pkg's

ADVANCED DIGITAL PC-SLAVE W/256K. 8MHz 8088
CPU.2 S Ports. RTNX S/W-For Multi-User P.C. . . $695
ADVANCED DIGITAL PC-SLAVE PACKAGE with Link

PCTerm Terminal S999

ALLOY PC-SLAVE 16 256K to 768K RAM $759

PC Video/Graphics & Cad

STB MONO PLUS II $169

STB CHAUFFEUR RGB Port/16 G rey Shades Produced
on Monochrome TTL Mop. w/o -Video Qriver,s ... $239
STB GRAPHICS PLUS II w/ Paral PFM* fort? .... $249

STB SURER RES 400 Color Hi-Res w732K ...... $325

TECMAR GRAPHICS MASTER 1 6 iGcipr* Hi-Res. $439
TECMAR GRAPHICS 7FWQ£fl ! RGB/PRT Port . . $195
CSD-PC AUTOCAD 2 PACKAGE: 1024X1024
Monochrome Graphics • r15" 1100X1250 Res. . $3,149
ILLUMINATED TECHNOLOGIES A&T-OGAD
PACKAGE: 8 Color 1024X1024 S-10'Q Board • Inside
Autocad Handbook • Autqcad 2 •■ Mitsubishi 19"
1024X874 RGB Analog Color Monitor • Hitachi Tiger

1L1"X1'1" Tablet -with 12 Buttbn Cursor $4,995

STB SUPER-RES PKG>. Board & 13" CM- 1370 Monitor
w/ 16 Colors. 720X400 @ 31.SKH2 Scan fjafe. .. . $749
TECMAR SUPER-RES PKG: Board & 13" ZVM-136

Monitor with 16 Colors @ 640X400 , . . $925

VECTRIX VXPCA 40&B Colors C!ose-Out$1,899

VECTRIX VX/PC Video Cable $79

PC Scientific/Industrial Boards

IND. COMP. DESIGNS 7000 W/96TTL I/O Ports . $379
TECMAR BASE BOARD 96 Digital I/O Lines . . . CALL

TECMAR DADIO D to A Up to 24 Devices CALL

TECMAR IEEE-488 Board CALL

TECMAR LABM ASTER CALL

TECMAR EXPANSION CHASSIS 12AMP P/S, Dual AC
Outlets, 7 Useable Slots, Space for Hard Disk . . . $675
PC PROTOTYPING BOARD $18.95

Modems

PROMETHEUS PROMODEM 1200 Hayes Compatible
w/ Built-in PWR Supply-RS232 Stand Alone Unit $289
OPTIONS FOR PROMODEM 1200 ARE:
COMMUNICATIONS PROC. BUFFER 2K-512K. . . $99

572K RAM for Communications Buffer $49

ALPHA NUMERIC DISPLAY $75

PROMETHEUS 7 200A Apple II, II + , Me Card w/Terminal

Software in ROM $279

PROMETHEUS 300C Apple IIC Piggy Back $139

PROMETHEUS 72006 For PC'S with Procom . . . $249
PROMETHEUS 1200M Stand Alone MAC Modem with

Cable and Communications Software $348

HAYES SMART MODEM 1200 RS-232 $429

HAYES SMART MODEM 2400 Universal $659

U.S. ROBOTICS PASSWORD 1200 $209

U.S. ROBOTICS AUTO DIAL 212 A $309

U.S. ROBOTICS PC/XT MODEM with TELPAC. . $199
U.S. ROBOTICS PC MULTI-MODEM with Clk-Cal.,

Batt. Back-up, PRT Port. 256K RAM Telpac $395

U.S. ROBOTICS MULTIUNK/COURIER 2400 ... $421

Communications Programs

MICROSTUF CROSS TALK XVI $115

MYCROFT LABS MITE...SUQ/MITE PLUS $165

WOOLF MOVE-IT PC-PC Communications $96

S-100 DIV./696 CORP.

14455 NORTH 79th ST.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ 85260

Inquiry 285 for End-Users. Inquiry 286 for DEALER5 ONLY.

FULL DEALER SUPPORT
VISIT OUR SHOWROOM

HRS: 8:00AM - 5:00PM M-F

WORLD'S LARGEST SELECTION
OF PC & S-100 PRODUCTS

S-100 Bus BDS & Accessories

11 you purchased before calling us, you probably paid
too much! We stock ACKERMAN DIGITAL, ADVANCED
DIGITAL, CCS, COMPUPRO, CROMEMCO, DUAL,
ELECTROLOGICS, ICM, KONAN, MULLEN, PICKLES
& TROUT, INDUSTRIAL COMPUTER DESIGNS,

TARBELL, TECMAR, VECTOR ELECTRONICS

A Few Of This Month's SPECIALS Are

ACKERMAN MEMORIZER 0-64K Ram&Eprom ., $211

ACKERMAN KLUGE CARD A&T .... $175

ACKERMAN PROMBLASTER II Up to 27256K'S . $306
ACKERMAN PROMBLASTER EXTENDER .... $79.95
SPECTRONICS PE24TI9 EPROM ERASER/TIMER 146
ADV. DIGITAL SUPER 186/256K MASTER .... $1,495

CCS 2422 Dual Floppy CTRL With CP/M $350

CCS 2710 4 Port Serial Board $275

CCS 2720 4 Port Parallel Board . . $215

CCS 2810 Z80 CPU with Serial Port $235

COMPUPRO RAM 16 64K STATIC . $95

COMPUPRO RAM 22 256K STATIC $446

COMPUPRO RAM 23 128K STATIC $219

COMPUPRO MDRIVE/H-10-1Mb for 816/10 $595

COMPUPRO PC-VIDEO BOARD $369

COMPUPRO DISK 1A 5" & 8" Floppy CTRL $369

COMPUPRO Disk 3 ST506 5" H.D.C $445

COMPUPRO SYSTEM SUPPORT 1 w/ CLK-CAL $263

COMPUPRO MOTHER BOARD 21 Slot $222

COMPUPRO CPU 8085/88 6 & 10 MHz $263

COMPUPRO CPU 8086 - 10M Hz $297

COMPUPRO CPU 68K - 10MHz $319

COMPUPRO CPU 286 - 8MHz $672

CROMEMCO XPL/ 10MHz 68000 CPU $1,270

CROMEMCO DPU 68000/Z-80 Dual CPU $675

CROMEMCO SCC Z-80 Single BD. Computer . . . $420

CROMEMCO 8PI0 8 Port Parallel $293

CROMEMCO D+7A 8 Channel 8 Bit D/A $293

CROMEMCO BIART Dual Sync/Async $675

CROMEMCO 64FDC 5"&8" Floppy CTRL $505

DUAL AIM-12 A/D Input 12 Bit/32 Channel $629

DUAL AOM-12 D/A Output 12 Bit/4 Channel .... $540
DUAL WDC Winchester DMA 2 BD. Set SA-4000 $840
ICM MASTER & SLAVE BOARDS ... As Low As $395
INDUSTRIAL COMPUTER DESIGNS:

•D/A 64-100 64 Analog Outputs $298

•AID 64-100 64 Analog Inputs $225

•CCT-100 Highly Accurate Time & Date Controller with

Battery Back-Up $249

KONAN DGC-100 ST 506 5Vi H.D. Controller. . . . $325

KONAN SMC-200 SMD 8" Controller $450

MACROTECH VRAM 512K Static with Batterv Back-Up

and MDrive/H Capability $769

MACROTECH M 1-286 80286/Z80H Dual Proc. . . . $699

MACROTECH MSR-II 1Mb Dynamic Ram $825

MACROTECH MSR-II 2Mb Dynamic Ram $1,059

MULLEN TB4A EXTENDER BD. w/Logic Probe . . $69
MULLEN ICB10 8 Channel Low Voltage Controller$165
PICKLES & TROUT P&T488 IEEE 488 BD & S.W. $429
VECTOR RAM 17 64K Static Ram (VIASYN) Excellent

with Z80 CPU'S $299

VECTOR INTERFACER I Dual Serial (VIASYN). . $199
VECTOR INTERFACER II 3 Para., 1 Serial $219

Mainframe & Drive Enclosures

ECT RM-10 Rack Card Cage 10 Slot-15A $250

ECT TT-10 Desk 10 Slot - 15 AMP $365

FULCRUM 880 with Front Panel & 20 Slots $565

INTEGRAND 2200 A w/4 Slots & 2 X 8" '/ 2 HT FLPYS349
INTEGRAND 2210 w/4 Slots & 5%" FLPY + H.D. . $315
INTEGRAND Laser Turbo 10 Slots, 2 H.D. 5%" . . $498

PARA DYNAMICS 3020D 20 Slot Desk $639

PARA DYNAMICS 5820-S •TOWER" with SNAP-ON
PANELS For Easy Access to Drive, 20 Slot Card Cage
and Power Supply Compartments, Status LED'S and
ON-OFF-RESET Key Switch on Front Panel, Houses

Sy.&e" Drives $1,869

INTEGRAND 2909 2X8"' V? HT Horiz. Stack $189

JMR 1H5 5Va" H.D. PC Style Cabinet $189

JMR 2SV8 Dual Vertical ^ HT. 8" $175

JMR 2H5 Dual 5%" Horizontal H.D $225

MPS 8462 Dual Horizontal 8" Slimline $215

MPS 8465 Dual 5" & 8" Horizontal Slim line $225

MPS 5500 SV*" STD. HT. H.D. & V? HT. Drive .... $225

MPS 5505 5%" H.D. & V* HT Flpy or Tape $209

MPS 5401 5%" STD HT H.D. or Dual Vi HT $215

MICROWARE SINGLE STD. 5%" Flpy Horizontal . $59
MICROWARE DUAL HORIZ 5Vi" V& HT. Floppy . . $79
MICROWARE 920004 Dual STD. 5%, PC-Style. . . $149
PARA DYNAMICS 2300-G3 2X8" Flpy & 5 H.D. . . $395

Printers, Plotters & Buffers

ANADEX DP9620B 240 DATA/1 20NLQ 15" ... . $1,135
BROTHER HR-15-XL 17CPS Daisy wheel S or P . $377
BROTHER HR-10 12CPS Daisy w/ TRAC. S&P . $249
BROTHER TwinRiter 5 Dot Matrix & Daisywheel $859
BROTHER 2024L 24 Pin Hi-Res Print&Graphics . $869

BROTHER M-1509 180/45 NLQ, P&S l/F $359

BROTHER M1009 EPSON Compatible Plug & Play$149
BROTHER HR-5 Plain-Paper Thermal Portable . . $159

CITIZEN MSP-10 160/40 NLQ 80/132 $269

CITIZEN MSP-15 160/40 CPS 15" Low Profile ... $385

CITIZEN MSP-20 200/50 NLQ 80/132 $369

CITIZEN MSP-25 200/50 CPS 15" ULTRA QUIET $515
CORONA LASER LP-300 w/IBM CTRL CARD . $2,698

CORONA LASER PRINTER FONTS $29

EPSON LO-1500 Cut-Sheet Feeder. Single Bin .. $309

NEC 35501 PC 30 CPS Daisy Wheel $1,097

STAR 120 DATA, 30NLQ: SG70...$239/SG75 .... $409
STAR 160 DATA, 40NLQ: SD70...S369/SD75 .... $495

STAR SD10I15 160 DATA/40 NLQ $369/$495

STAR 200 DATA, 50NLQ: SR10...$535/SR15 $659

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 855 with TRACTOR . . , . $679
HOUSTON INST. PLOTTERS & DIGITIZERS . . CALL
DITRON 64K PCIXT CARD BUFFER w/PRT Port(LPT 1
or 2 or 3) 100% PC&AT Resident S/W Utilities . . . $135
HANZON 12315 64K-256K INTELLIGENT BUFFER
SER.-SER., SER.-PAR., PAR.-SER.. PAR. -PAR.
Computer to Printer Combinations Possible. So easy to
use - instructions printed on bottom of cabinet . . $259

HANZON ADD-IN MODULE 64K RAM $49

JOHNATHAN FREEMAN DESIGNS UNIVERSAL PRT
BUFFER S&P In & S&P Out: 64K...$189/256K . . . $249
OKIDATA 182 80 Column 120 DATA/ 60 NLQ . ., $222
PRACT. PERIPH. APPLE GRAPHICARD & CBL. . $70
PRACTICAL PERIPH. APPLE SERIAL BOARD .. $112

PRACTICAL PERIPH APPLE PRINTERFACE $55

VIA WEST VSP-32 Paral-Serial Converter $62

Monitors & Terminals

AMDEK 300G $119

PRINCETON GRAPHICS HX-12 690X240RGB . .. $465
PRINCETON GRAPHICS SR-12 690X480RGB . . . $589
TATUNG CM-1322 640X200 RGB Same as IBM . $375
TATUNG CM-1360 LIKE 1322 with G-A Switch . . $419
TATUNG CM-1370 720X480 RGB w/GRN Switch, Long
Persist Phos. Works w/ STB's SUPER RES 400 . . $469
TATUNG DM-12VL 12" Monochrome A $114/ G $109
TATUNG /WM-7222 Hi-Res 12"TTL(IBMM$125/G $119

TAXAN 12" 1 16 4M8... $119/775 GRN $109

TECMAR ZVM-136 640X480 RGB 13", Grn Switch$499

ZENITH ZVM122A AMB or ZVM123A GRN $79

KIMTRON KT-7 14" Green $498

LIBERTY FREEDOM TERMINALS CALL

LINK 725 Wyse 50 Compat. 14" GRN or AMB w/Higher
RES., More Emul'S, Selectric K.B., 6 Scroll Rates $429
LINK PC-TERM IBM or ASCII VIDEO, 14" GRN or AMB,
IBM-AT Keyboard Layout. 132 Column, Also
Compatible with WY-50 & TVI 925 $479

Computer Accessories

CA P75 Expandable 5 Circuit Monitor Base with Modem

Protection & Surge/Noise $101.97

CA P150.P151.P152.P15 with ABC Data Switch$217.28

CA C7-6 6 IBM-Paral. CBI (1-9) $9.50, (10+) $8.83

CA C7-9 9' IBM-Paral. CBL. (1-9) $11.95, (10+) $11.06
CA C200 SERIES Premium Molded RS232 Cables ....

(1-9) $12.48 TO $28.47, (10+) $11.86 TO $27.05

CA C300 SERIES Premium Molded Parallel Cables . ..

(1-9) $19.98 TO $45.57, (10+) $18.98 TO $43.29

CA C400 VIDEO CABLES

(1-9) $2.48 TO $21.29, (10+) $2.36 TO $18.10

CA C500 SERIES Cable Extender Packs w/ MON, PWR,
VIDEO & KEYBD. CBLS . . . (1-9) $29.98, (10+) $28.48
CA S4 4 Circuit Surge Supp. (1-9) $26.47, (10+)$25.15

CA S6 6 Circuits Surge & Cable Storage

(1-9) $31.77, (10+) $30.18

Monitor Tilt & Swivel Stand. .(1-9) $12.95, (10+) $10.95

Software • Software • Software

We have Access to all Well Known Brands - ORDER
CORRECTLY -- SOFTWARE IS NOT RETURNABLE!

Word Proc./Screen Formatter

MICROPRO CORRECT STAR I PC-DOS $95

MICROPRO MAIL MERGE I CP/M-86 8" 75

MICROPRO PROPAK $317

MULTIMATE WORD PROCESSOR I PC-DOS . . . $315

NEW STAR NEWWORD 16 Bit with merge
PRINT, THE WORD PLUS Spelling Checker - Easier
than Word Star but File Compatible $99.95

NEW STAR NEWWORD 8 bit with merge

PRINT $79.95

PFS WRITE $89

OASIS THE WORD PLUS Spelling Checker $95

OASIS PUNCTUATION & STYLE $79

MARK OF THE UNICORN THE FINAL WORD... $189

COMPUVIEW VEDIT $115/l/£D/f PLUS $169

COMPUVIEW VEDIT PLUS, V-PRINT & SPELL.. $298
COMPUVIEW V-SPELL CP/M 80 8" & PC DOS ... $95

Language And Tools

BD SOFTWARE "C" Compiler 8" SS SD 8 BIT ... $95

BORLAND PC TURBO PASCAL 3.0 $44

BORLAND PC TURBO PASCAL 3.0 W/ 8087 $70

DIGITAL RESEARCH Most Products 36% OFF

ITHACA PASCAL Z CP/M80 8" $285

LATTICE "C" Compiler '. $299

MICROSOFT Complete Line 32% OFF

SUPERSOFT FORTRAN PC/MSDOS $199

DIGITAL RESEARCH COMPLETE LINE .... 36% OFF
AMERICAN TRAINING INTL TUTORIALS .. 36% OFF

BORLAND PC SIDEKICK (Unprotected) $54

BORLAND PC SUPERKEY (Unprotected) $41

BORLAND PC TURBO GRAPHIX TOOLBOX $35

BORLAND PC TURBO TOOLBOX $35

BORLAND PC TURBO TUTOR $22

FOX & GELLER QUICKCODE For dBASE 2 $184

FOX & GELLER dGRAPH For dBASE 2 $187

FOX & GELLER dUTIL For dBASE 2 $63

FOX & GELLER QUICK SCREEN For dBASE 2. . . $94
FOX & GELLER PC GRAFOX BUS. GRAPHICS . $159
FOX & GELLER PC QUICKREPORT III $187

Data Bases & Spreadsheets

ASHTON-TATE ALL PRODUCTS 32% OFF

DATAFLEX FILE/RECORD Locking Multi-User. CALL

MDBS Knowledgeman CP/M86 8" $295

MICROPRO REPORT STAR $119

MICROPRO INFO STAR/16 Bit $239

MICRORIM R: BASE 5000. . $439

PFS FlLE,,.,..:::.,.$8S/REPORT $75

SORCIM SUPERCALC-3 Better Than 1 -2-3!! .... $179

Networking & Switch Boxes

INTERCONT. MICRO SYS. LAN-PC w/o RAM. . . $469

INTERCONT. MICRO SYSTEMS LANS-100 $359

COMPUPRO/VIASYN NET 11 For 816/10 Sys.. . . $425
COMPUPRO/VIASYN NET 101-96 For S-100 Bus $425
GILTRONIX MANUAL and AUTOMATIC
SWITCHING UNITS to Fit all of your SHARED
PRINTER, TERMINAL, MODEM & other Peripheral
Needs. These Units In Stock:

5100 8 Wire A-B Serial CALL

5110 8 Wire A-B-C Serial CALL

5200 24 Wire A-B Serial CALL

5210 24 Wire A-B-C Serial CALL

5400 CENTRONICS A-B CALL

5500 IBM - Parallel A-B CALL

Call For Prices & Configurations On Other Units

Hobby Corner

SOLD "AS IS" WITH NO RETURNS

APPLE II INTEGER BASIC CARD $59

CROMEMCO ZPU $149

ELECTROLOGICS QUASI-DISK CP/M80 RAM DISK

with Battery Back-up: 2M£>....$1,695/4/Wb $3,095

MORROW MD-2 W/MP100 Daisy Printer. CP/M 2.2,
Word Proc, Spreadsheet, Basic, Etc., Software. . $695
NORTH STAR ADVANTAGE G/MSDOS & CP/M $169

NORTH STAR FLOATING POINT BOARD $169

NOVATION SMART CAT 212 $219

PARA DYNAMICS 2508D 8 Slots 42X5'/. DRVS . . $350
PRAGMATIC DESIGNS PD20MS 8" FUJITSU 20Mb

H.D. Add-On Drive For CompuPro System $2,495

REMEX RFD-480 48 TPI 5% Standard HT $65

SD SYSTEMS XRAM-4 256K $195

SD SYSTEMS CP/M3.0 Unbanked $95

SD SYSTEMS MPU-100 Z80 CPU Kit $89

SD SYSTEMS E-PROM BOARD #27007 Kit $49

SMS STATIC RAM 64K For N.S. Horiz.. Etc $149

TARBELL CASSETTE TAPE SUBSYSTEM $99

TEI 7FD-0 Cabinet For 3 STD 5VV FLY. DRVS. . $195

TRANSEND/SSM MB8A Kit 16K EPROM BD $59

TRANSEND/SSM EP128 Reads Up To 16 EPROMS$89

m

>

m

z
o

H
m

i

z

o

>

o
o

CD

-a

m

2

2

30

F 1
(/>

CO

a.

2

a

05

rr
tj

<D

■a

CL

O

CD

All merchandise new. Advertised prices are cash prepaid only. MC, Visa & P.O's from qualified firms - add 3%.
Wires. COD's ($5min.fee) withCashiersCheck/MO & APO's accepted. Shipping: minimum $4 first 3 lbs. Tax: AZ
RES ONLY add 6% sales tax. All returns subject to 20% restocking fee or credit towards future purchases. Retail
prices slightly higher. All prices subject to change without notice.

/' J/\ x \

LU

m m m u>
at a> at en

t? Cft Cft <7>

N Ifl O) O)

f- f- V €0

\\ '

,j_ ,'/>v ***.

^ / «/ H

co co co m

: / m co

^r o oi o)

, "V;/S§Ij^;/

//J a

CO OJ CD Lp

-•--^ ; /%^ j

if

X'fl

C TO C TO

a uy-

Q)

3 O

-Q

LU 0. UJ 0.

gsCQ

03

(D E
(D O

c °

200 Baud
200 Baud
>400 Baud
!400 Baud

03 CO

=3 03
O X

JADE 1
JADE 1

jade;

JADE 2

in lo

UJ

O) O)

I™ c _>

Q

<

-3

oo o>

OWA

jplaceme

SUPF

r IBM PC

H

CT) CD

(0

-1

CT) ^t

i— C\J

«"tt?

t/> t/>

5/1

op-in

WE

For y

■** -it*

(0 (0

CO Q o

££

*- o.

u> o
co ir>

oe If) i

BE »

! 03

PRINTE

$ 199

• 94- fonts

& Qume compati

PRINTE

D l, Centronics par

2395

HE c q. q.^ jd

9 5 w

SE

jes/m
500 c
& gra
of Rfi
n, Dia

■ E S? °

^* °- > <D oj Q-

<§, H

^J CD O r- *- LJJ

4^ a ^ z

CO

UJ

S 3Q.

LO

e.and
C/XT
net &
JADE

......

O) Cft Cft Cft Cft 0)

CO CO Oi O) Oi CI
CO Tt CO to CO CO

isk Syste

1 FOR YO
J IBM

00

j, datacabi
otally P
odel (cabi

LIST

O O CO o O CO

co in co m m co
co m co co in co

CD

UJ

CO

ntrollercarc
dware, t
external m
idd s 199.

High

High

-80 ms

for AT

for AT

k-up

s

o

"Epl

CO L^

pletewith co
nting har
)atible. For
jr supply)— £

B Internal 1 / 2
B Internal 1 / 2
B for AT, 60
B Hi-Speed
B Hi-Speed
B Tape Bac

£ o E S

R c ° °

o o o o o o

O E o o.

i- OJ OJ OJ CO i-

u

m m m in u> 1
oi oi oi o> e»
CO to Tt TT 0f>

w

o
o

3

"3

£o>

0)

-n ^ >: >»

spee<
plotte
specif
rranty

uantil

c

co co m

>

03
(75

3

S/

CO

"l£

(0 w |

•-

13

0)_ — 03 u

■

w —
»7 QC

O

>

ottin
elec
erial
ry w
lited

<r

2d!

TO '
Q.5

nnesmann

OTTE

IT)
CD

CD
CJ

"i_
CL

en

Lj

Fast 8 ips p!
3 pen auto s
Parallel or s
90 day facte
HURRY! Lirr

r

water base pen
oi! base pens_
ets 8y 2 x11 pap
Is 8V2XH trans
software for IB

• • • • • c

h

c
C

5

L

8 extra
4 extra
100 she
50 shee
Plotter s

Cft ^ Cft
Cft ^ TT

Ifl Jr

Z3

c

♦- .t; ^t

tr

TO

3.c r

E^ CD

£
Z2

O

CD -J

OO

nally
red f
n Co
ed q

cabl

0£

tzo

B2
c

s'^S

D °
°°

ID

O 45

<:S

*J"

oe

+- u co

I 1 ^ ^r

co r co

JO.®

2S

^B

G)

O x

<

HH

CO

X

z

CO

<

CM

««

O 1—

— CD ^

HI
Q

<

m m
01 01
Cft Cft
TT Cft

.It

^^^s^

-C

O ^

; 1 fl 1 co

CO CO ~

co it

Sec

jtter
the
is

9

Ifl/ a

OJ & Q

^ 1 O
O \ ■* £

a 1 sOi

liICO

3 $ c \k

>, 5 i \

!|//si

\/l I OJ •*

Dnal deluxe trad
: cut sheet feeder .

rWriter is a Tradema
Digital Products.

>,<

c co t WQ« N

CD CC < J <

oto f

^5

5

< ?

UJ "*

£ .

■"5 2
m <

OI Ol OI OI OI

Cft Cft Cft Cft Cft

J- OJ OJ OJ OJ Cft

^ in tp h- gp m

6

— ^ ^ CD CD CD

oS? 252
u- 1- in 1- oj *r

5 g " c

03 O ^

<

Q.

a

»- ° i= •*-

< a- .2 ST*
o 5 <o a> >»

<

CO

in
a)

G)

o

T" ^ CO Q_

Oc3g o 5

— Q_ CD -C _*

Oifi ^ o E
CM I- 2 <

CO

c

O

H- H- -g

i- 4- ^r

x O O ^ .2
CO .^

I-
<

I

o

a.

CD

OS°

CO

^ C CO

CNJ

C CO -C

C\J

CO O
° CO

_

CL CC
03 "

:x, CC ^ 1

CD

-° ^ = m - C
™ O ^ CO CD O CO

in c\j i- CL CD O K

in

£ = S

ONE GPIB-488
INTERFACE

FOR ALL

IBM PC XT AT

CLONES, APPLE MACINTOSH,

TANDY 2000, 1200HD, 1000

ANY LANGUAGE
EASY TO USE

MODEL 438-2000 PRICE $675

+ SHIPPING, INSURANCE & TAX
When ordering specify computer for proper cable.

Scientific Engineering
Laboratories

104 Charles St. • Ste. 143 • Boston, MA 02114
Telephone: (617) 262-3903

P*PROC

EPROM
PROGRAMMER

The EP-1 is a great value, here's why:

• IBM PC Compatible, Communication Disk included.
Also works with CP/M end Development Systems

• Supports over 100 types including 2716 through 27512,
CMOS, and A-Suffix Parts

• Menu Driven Chip Selection by Manufacturer and Part
Number

• No Personality Modules

• Fest Programming Algorithm

• Gold Textool ZIF IC Socket

• RS-232, 7 baud rates to 9600

• Full One Year Warranty

• U.V. Ei-esers from $34.95

BP Microsystems

5325 Glenmont, Suite E, Houston, TX 77081
[713] 667-1636

DOUBLE

THE OPTION CAPACrTY

OF YOUR fBM PERSONAL COMPUTER

PC-XTRA

• DIRECT EXTENSION OF
IBM PC BUS

• NO SOFTWARE CHANGES

• NO HARDWARE MODIFICATION

• STYUNO CONSISTENT WITH IBM
Add all those special options that you've been
wanting without worrying about filling your
p!ug*fn and back panel space

DEALER INQI

S 549 00 * F.O.B. SANTA ANA

-CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS ADD 6% SALES TAX

PC HORIZONS, INC.

1701 E. Edinger, Ste. A6, Santa Ana, CA 92705
(714) 953-5396

Inquiry 289

Inquiry 48

Inquiry 248

PC-WRITER

IBM PC GRAPHICS

&
LETTER QUALITY

Enhancement for
Okidata ML82A/83A
Dot Matrix Printers

• Plug in module easily installs in printer.

• Draft (120cps) & Letter Quality (30 cps)

• Elite character pitch

• Front oanel access to all features

• Emulation of IBM PC Graphics printer

• Superscripts / subscripts

• Foreign / scientific characters

• Works with print screen key in
graphics and text

• Prints all 228 display screen characters
and box drawing symbols exactly as
they appear on display (double line as
well as single line box symbols)

Ask About OK-WRITEFTOkidata

?raphics for $99 with many of above
eat u res

RAINBOW TECHNOLOGIES. INC

O

17971-E Skypark Circle, Irvine, CA 92714
(714) 261-0228 Telex 386078

UK Distributer: X-DATA (0753) 72331

ICs and Disk Drives

64K / 128K / 256K

D-RAMs at LOW PRICES
TEAC FD-55BV DSDD Disk Drives
889.00 each

(wtf/one year factory warranty!)
V-20 5-MHz S14.95

8-MHz S17.95

V-30 8-MHz S19.95

MEMORY BOARDS

•ABM MULTI-FUNCTION BOARD w/3B4K S185.00
•ABM MEM512 w/512K RAM S159.00

•TALL-TREE JRAM-2 w/2-MB S295.00

•JRAM-3 w/2-MB S400.00

155W POWER SUPPLY

FOR IBM PC & XT 8135.00

2716, 2732, 2764. 27128, 27256. 6116,
6264, 8087, 80287 are in stock
CALL US FOR OETAILS!

1

ExcelTec Industries, Inc.

P.O. Box 2205 Silver Spring, MD 20902

Phone: (301) 933-3523

OEMs and DEALERS are Invited

CALL US FOR THE LATEST PRICES

FREE

COMPATIBLE COMPUTER

When you buy one of the following products
at very affordable Introductory prices.

UNIVERSAL PROGRAMMER $1,595

Programs EPROMS & PALexpandable
to BI-POLAR and single chip micro

LOGIC ANALYZER $1,795

50 MHZ, 8 channel expandable to 32 channel

GANG PROGRAMMER $1,295

Programs 8 EPROMS with same data or
different data.

PROTOCOL ANALYZER

Monitor and Simulator.

$1,595

ABOVE PRODUCTS A VAILABLE WITHOUT PC.

Advanced Microcomputer

Systems, Inc.

2780 S.W. 14th St.

Pompano Bch.. FL 33069

1-800-9PC-FREE

ams

Inquiry 280

Inquiry 136

Inquiry 377

For the IBM PC. XT. AT, PCjr, and Compatibles

PC102 precisely emulates DEC VT102.
101. 100. and VT52 terminals.

PC4010 includes all PC102 features
plus Tektronix 4010 graphics.

A few reasons why thousandsof customers-
including GE, Dow, Raytheon, Westinghouse,
and Stanford University— prefer our products. . .

• Complete keyboard and screen emulation
w/line graphics (optional 132-columns)

• ANSI color, local printer, bidirectional file
transfer support

• Guaranteed compatibility with all DEC
applications including EOT, WORD-11,
ALL-IN-ONE, DEC-CALC. UNIX vi

• New DOS shell key. ten programmable
softkeys, plus full DOS 2.X-3.X path names.

• Written in "C" and ASM: up to 38.4 KB

prin?-.m

S89.00

PC10?

[lorPC.XT.AT.QNX)

$139.00

PC4010

__ 5179,00

Prepaid. C O D . Mast

rcard.VlSA

'P.O. Box 5330
Minneapolis, MN 55343 (g12) 944-0593

BAR CODE READER

• IBM PC/XT COMPATIBLE (AND MOST CLONES)

• CONNECTS BETWEEN KEYBOARD AND THE PC
•NO CARD SLOT REQUIRED/SIMPLE INTERCONNECT
•NO CUSTOM SOFTWARE DRIVERS REQUIRED
•HIGH FIRST READ RATE

• READS DOT MATRIX & PRINTED BAR CODE LABELS

• CODE 3 OF 9. INTERLEAVED 2 OF 5. UPC

• AUTOMATIC BAR CODE SELECTION

• AUDIO AND VISUAL INDICATORS

• READS HIGH. MEO. AND LOW DENSITY LABELS

• SWITCH SELECTABLE OPTIONS 4* A Q f*

• SELF-TEST DIAGNOSTICS 9 f ff9w ea.

PC/MS DOS BAR CODE PRINTING SOFTWARE S79 ea.

\m

AMERICAN MICROSYSTEMS

P.O. BOX 830551. RICHARDSON, TX. 75080
(817) 834-9659 hm

MASTERCARD AND VISA ACCEPTED mSm

5

for

$99.00

V4" Hard Disk Controll

Micromint COMM180 and c

ers

)thers

5B1

1610
CONTROLLER r

>.,U1X. W ,M

RIVE

KOOTAOtfJCT

m m Bto*

■
i disk drives

)tec 4000
YSTEMS

rds

3ASI/SC
EMULV

WORK

• Mien
■ Wave
•AMP
•MAC
•ACS

• ISI 5

SI to ST506 interface (all 5V«" har
\TES: XEBEC S1410

DTC510

SCSI-similar to Adai
S WITH MANY POPULAR £
imint COMM180
mate Bullet

R0 Little Board - All Boa
, APPLE He
1000

Ask about others

These Shugart 1610 boards are new, Shugart
tested controllers are guaranteed 90 days. They
will mount on a 5 V hard disk drive. Manual and
schematic included.

Computer Surplus Store

3675 Desoto Ave., Santa Clara, CA 95051
(408) 248-0134

Cliuck Schuetz. proprietor
Quantity and Dealer pricing available

Inquiry 144

Inquiry 89

^^T s r^>', ;i ^-

i

Products

nternational

niemauonai 7i4#898-0840

Telex: 887841 XORDATA HTBH Fax: 714/897-3363
► 15392 Assembly Lane, Unit A* Huntington Beach, CA92649

TUBED

The XAT is out most versatile and powerful
system. Using Intel's 80286 processor, the
system runs at 6 and 8 MHz with a true
16-bit data bus. Comes standard with a 3
meg Add-On board, 2 parallel & one serial
port, monitor, keyboard, DOS 3.1. two
'/jheight DS/DD 1.2 meg floppies.

5 Complete Systems

Out, t986 Catalog is
HOT} off the press!

:/ ! v Dealers! Check our

9 * Profitable Discount

Pricing!

//•-/:

This standard system is as compatible with
IBM as it can be, Featuring a 4-layer mother-
board. 8-slot expansion, up to 640K
memory on the motherboard, and the 6.67
MHz TURBO mode. Also included: DOS 3,1,
keyboard, 135 watt power supply, TTL 720 i
348 resolution video card, green or amber
monitor, serial & parallel ports, Real Time
Clock and software.

Amsterdam ■ 020-45-26-50

2 Meg Above Board

~ II IIIHHrrn

This board satisfies the new "Above Board" approach
suggested by INTEL and Lotus 1-2-3. Also may be used
on our XT-SBC TURBO board formemory based at OK

■

flJWi!tDi!!!illlll[|||||li|
SiWHilHI 71
I'ilililliillliiil ' J

The perfect choice for the system integrator
who needs the IBM compatibility, but not in
the standard PC cabinet. This model features
hinged and removable sides, up to 3 Vsheight
peripherals out front, front mount AC switch
and rear mount 200 watt power supply. Also
makes an ideal "Host" of "File Server" unit
in multi-user configurations!

The XTJr. is only junior in size! With up to
640K memory on the motherboard and four
expansion slots, this stand-alone system is
also great for workstations in a networking
environment. It can be upgraded to the
TURBO two speed motherboard and you
can also add up to 2serial& 2 parallel ports
or any IBM compatible expansion card. A
perfect word processing/data entry system.

lir^ Compact

This is truly the affordable portable, and we'll
build it to your specifications. Need a 20
meg hard disk and 20 meg tape with 640K
memory in your compact portable' Or how
about a 2 floppy Turbo system? No problem!
The XPC Compact comes standard with a
9 " green CRT driven by a color graphics
card so you'll always have a RGB color out-
put to externally run a color monitor

24 Add-On Cards

Hard Disk Controller

This Western Digital controller handles 1 or 2 drives. 5
to 140 megabytes with minimum software configura-
tion. Features DOS 2 1 &3 1 compatibility, andST-506
Interface.

384K Multi-Function

Another Western Digital features Parallel Port, Serial
Port, Game Port, Real Time Clock/Calendar with Battery
Back-up, Expand to 384K, ailCables, PrintSpooler and
RAM Disk Software, and Manuals.

Germany

4 Meg Token Ring

Connect your workstation to an existing 4 Megabyte
IBM token ring system or build up your own IEEE 802.5
standardsystem. The lowestpossiblecost for
100%industry standard compatibility

ATH.D. & Floppy

Mono & Color Graphics

7 PAK Multi-Function

This new Western Digital combo board with its h -speed
VLSI technology will give you a data transfer rate 50?
faster than the existing combo board in the AT. Runs
both 360K and 1 2 meg floppy disk drives.

Supports two levels of graphics and text in composite
monochrome or RGB color, Ijdw resolution 320 x 200
pixel, high resolution 640 x 200 pixel.

Features FloppyController. Parallel Port. Serial Port
(optional 2nd Serial), Game Port. Real Time
Clock/Calendar with Battery Back-up, RAMdisk. Print-
Spooler, all cables & manuals.

PROM Laser

Hi-speed algorithmes will burn 2716. 2732. 2732A,
2764 (in 52 sec). 27128, 27256 EPROMSundersoft-
ware control right in your PC Zero Force Insertion
Sockets. Software, and Manual.

Motherboards

XAT TURBO XT-SBC

• RTC/Calendar

• 6 & 8 MHz clock

• 8-slot expansion

• Intel 80286

« 4.77 & 8 MHz clock

■ Serial & Parallel

• 4-layer PCB design

■ RTC/Calendar

XPC TURBO XPC-XT

• 4.77 & 6.67 MHZ • Standard 4,77 MHz

• 4-layer PCB design • up to 640K memory

• 8-slot expansion • 8-slot expansion

• up to640K Memory • standard 8088 CPU
8-2 processor • 8087 socket avail.

Power Supplys

XT 135 watt XT 150 watt

35 Components

Bombay ■ 357172

:#>

• 135w switching 'Whisper fan

• Whisper Fan • Hi-output 150 watt

• Side AC switch • 4 DC connectors

• +5V-15A/-5V-.5A • +5V-15A/-5V-.5A

• +12V-4.2A/-12V-.5A* + 12V-5.5A/-12V-.5A

AT 200 watt XTC-BIack

■>!

1 200 Watt power • Rear Mount

1 Exterior AC switch • Rear On/Off switch
1 4 DC power conn. • extra AC outlets
> +5V-20A/-5V-.5A • +5V-15A/-5V-.5A
• +12V-7.7A/-12V-.5A* + 12V-4A/- 12V-.5A

3 Sub-Systems

Cabinets

iiillHSllli -j- WW

The XTjr. cabinet is only 3" x 16.5" x 15" yet it
will hold a standard XT compatible motherboard.
Includes a switching power supply. Front panel
cut-out for a hall-heightlloppy or hard disk.

Our XPC-XT cabinet has an 8-slot back panel
with additional cut-outs for two RS-232 I/O ports.
Features mounting for up to lour half height

peripherals.

The right choice (or an external add-on cabinet'
Add-on a floppy, tape back-up, or up to 33 meg of
hard disk (half-height). Switching power supply is
included.

Keyboards

AT

This Keyboard is standard equipment with all
of our XAT systems, but the layout is so well
liked, we're offering it here.

XT

Our volume purchases ol these IBM style
unils allows us to lower the price once again.

5151

Now a fufly selectric unit at an affordable
price. Features a 10 -key numeric pad & a
separate cursor pad.

&

V B

I

Drives

Archive

Irwin

Maxtor

Memtek

Miniscribe

Panasonic

Seagate

TEAC

Tulin

I Panasonic «
Seagate H
TEAC
Tulin

3 Networks

Cassette Training y Int/Ext Modems

This full height cabinet
will hold a Tape Back-up
with full or ! jheight Hard
Disk inside (or two Hard
Disks).

A perfect cabinet for
Tape or Hard Oisk. a
nice addition to your

Choose from single V? height, dual Vj height, or Viheight
with full height base All Sub-systems include con-
trollers, cables, software, and manuals.

Inquiry 221

mi

One way to stay ahead of the competition is by using a Multi-
User or Nclwork system configuration from Micro Products
International. Choose Hi-speed RS-232 - XOR-NET
SDLC or Token Ring Data transfer rates up to 4 megabytes/
second can be obtained.

What is the Cassette Training concept? Using Interactive
Audio Training to combine the advantage of classroom and
sell-teaching methods.

The Method . , . One audio track delivers a lecture explaining
the program, while the second track emulates the keyboard,
actually running the student's computer. At frequent intervals
the tape pauses automatically toallow the student keyboard
input, which is monitored for accuracy by the MITS COED

• FCC apporved for direct • Runs the popular
RJ-11 connection Hayes communications

• Phone Cable & Power Supply software

Finally a price breakthrough on a Hayes compatible, external
300-1200 baud modem Includes driver software

I

II
131

r : : :

• Q-Modem software included • Runs the popular
Also runs XCOM software Hayes communications

• All cables included software

We included every leature you would want in a modem card.
It's FCC registered for direct connection to your modular
phone jack with the cord included.

:BRUARY 1986 -BYTE 447"

BUILD A COMPLETE XT SYSTEM— $698

STATIC RAMS

2101
5101
2102L-4
2102L-2
2112
2114
2114L-4
2114L-2
2114L-15
TMS4044-4
TMM2016 150
| TMM2016-100
HM6116-4
HM6116-3
HM6116LP 4
HM6116LP-3
HM6116LP-2
HM6264P-15
HM6264LP-15
HM6264LP-12

256x4
256x4
1024x1
1024x1
256x4
1024x4
1024x4
1024x4
1024x4
4096x1
2048x8
2048x8
2048x8
2048x8
2048x8
2048x8
2048x8
8192x8
8192x8
8192x8

(450ns)

(450ns)(CMOS)

(450ns)(LP)

(250ns)(LP)

(450ns)

(450ns)

(450ns)(LP)

(200ns)(LP)

(150ns)(LP)

(450ns)

(150ns)

(100ns)

(200ns)(CMOS)

(150ns)(CMOS)

(200ns)(CMOS)(LP)

(150ns)(CMOS)(LP)

(120ns)(CMOS)(LP)

(150ns)(CMOS)

(150ns)(CMOS)(LP)

(120ns)(CMOS)(LP)

1.95
3.95

.99
1.45
2.99

.99
1.09
1.49
1.95
1.95
1.49
1.95
1.39
1.49
1.49
1.59
2.95
3.89
3.95
4.49

DYNAMIC RAMS

4116-250
4116 200
4116-150
4116-120
MK4332
4164 200
4164-150
4164-120
MCM6665
TMS4164
4164-REFR
TMS4416
41128-150
41256 200
41256-150
5V=Single

16384x1

16384x1

16384x1

16384x1

32768x1

65536x1

65536x1

65536x1

65536x1

65536x1

ESH 65536x1

16384x4

131072x1

262144x1

262144x1

5 Volt Supply

(250ns) .49

(200ns) .69

(150ns) .89

(120ns) 1.49

(200ns) 6.95

(200ns)(5V) .95

(150ns)(5V) .99

(120ns)(5V) 1.95

(200ns)(5V) 1.95

(150ns)(5V) 1.95
(150ns)(5V)(REFRESH) 2.95

(150ns)(5V) 4.95

(150ns)(5V) 5.95

(200ns)(5V) 2.95

(150ns)(5V) 2.95
REFRESH^ Pin 1 Refresh

• •••HIGH-TECH****
NECV20 UPD7010B $14"

REPLACES 8088 TO SPEED UP IBM PC 10-40%

* HIGH-SPEED ADDRESS CALCULATION
IN HARDWARE

* PIN COMPATIBLE WITH 8088

* SUPERSET OF 8086/8088 INSTRUCTION
SET

* LOW POWER CMOS

8 MHZ V20 UPD70108-8 $24.95
1 8 MHZ V30 UPD70116-8 $26.95

****SPOTLIQHT****

ORDER TOLL FREE

EPROMS

¥*T:WiTiTi

800-662-6279.

2708

1024x8

(450ns)

3.95

2716 6

2048x8

(650ns)

2.29

2716

2048x8

(450ns)(5V)

2,25

2716-1

2048x8

(350ns)(5V)

2.79

TMS2532

4096x8

(450ns)(5V)

3.95

2732

4096x8

(450ns)(5V)

2.45

2732A

4096x8

(250ns)(5V)(21V PGM)

2.75

2732A-2

4096x8

(200ns)(5V)(21VPGM)

3.95

27C64

8192x8

(250ns)(5V)(CMOS)

5.95

2764

8192x8

(450ns)(5V)

2.45

2764-250

8192x8

(250ns)(5V)

2.85

2764-200

8192x8

(200ns)(5V)

3.49

TMS2564

8192x8

(450ns)(5V)

8.95

MCM68766

8192x8

(350ns)(5V)(24 PIN)

17.95

27128

16384x8

(250ns)(5V)

2.79

27C256

32768x8

(250ns)(5V)(CMOS)

12.95

27256

32768x8

(250ns)(5V)

7.49

5V=Single

5 Volt Supply

21V PGlVUProgram at 21 Volts

raSPECTRONlCS
U CORPORATION

EPROM ERASERS

/*-

/ J

Hb^'^R PE-14T

oanr

Iffl ™l

Model

Timer

Capacity
Chip

Intensity
(uW/Cm 2 )

Unit
Price

PE-14

NO

9

8,000

$83.00

PE-14T

YES

9

8,000

S119.00

PE-24T

YES

12

9,600

$1 75.00

8000

8035

8039

8080

8085

8087-2

8087

1.49

1.95

2.95

2.49

139.95

109.00

6.95

9.95

2.49

3.95

7.95

19.95

129.95

185.00

6500

1.0MHZ

6502 2.79

65C02{CMOS) 12.95

CRT
CONTROLLERS

CRYSTALS

74LS00

6507
6520
6522
6526
6532
| 6545
, 6551
6561
6581

9.95

1.95

4.95

26.95

6.95

6.95

5.95

19.95

34.95

6845
68B45
6847

HD46505SP
MC1372
8275
7220
CRT5027
CRT5037
l TMS9918A

4.95
8.95
11.95
6.95
2.95
26.95
19.95
12.95
9.95
19.95 .

2.0 MHZ

8200

8203
8205
8212
8216
8224
8237
| 8237-5
8250
8251
8251A
8253
8253-5
8255
8255-5
8259
8259-5
8272
8279
8279-5
8282
I 8284
| 8286
,8288

29.95
3.29
1.49
1.49
2.25
4.95
5.49
6.95
1.69
1.89
1.89
1.95
1.69
1.89
1.95
2.29
4.95
2.49
2.95
3.95
2.95
3.95
4.95 ,

6502A
6520A
6522A
I 6532A
6545A
6551A

2.95
2.95
5.95
11.95
7.95
6.95

DISK
CONTROLLERS

3.0MHZ

6000

1.0 MHZ

ZOO

[ Z80-CPU2 5MHz1.69

4.0 MHZ

280A-CPU
Z80A-CTC
Z80A-DART
Z80A-DMA
Z80A-PIO
Z80A-SIO/0
Z80A-SIO/1
[ Z80A-SIO/2

6.0 MHZ

6800

6802

6803

6809

6809E

6810

6820

6821

6840

6843

6844

6845

6847

6850

6883

1.95
4.95
9.95
5.95
5.95
1.95
2.95
1.95
6.95

19.95

12.95
4.95

11.95
1.95

22.95

1771

1791

1793

1795

1797
| 2791

2793

2797

6843

8272

UPD765

MB8876

MB8877

1691
L 2143

4.95
9.95
9.95
12.95
12.95
19.95
19.95
29.95
19.95
4.95
4.95
12.95
12.95
6.95
6.95 .

32.768 KHz

1.0 MHz

1.8432

2.0

2.097152

2.4576

3.2768

3.579545

4.0

4.032

5.0

5.0688

6.0

6.144

6.5536

8.0
10.0

10.738635
12.0

14.31818
15.0
16.0
17.430
18.0
18.432
20.0
22.1184
24.0
32.0

.95
2.95
2.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.95

CRYSTAL
OSCILLATORS

2.0 MHZ

1.79
1.89
5.95
5.95
1.89
5.95
5.95
5.95

68B00
68B02
68B09E
68B09
68B21
68B45
68B50
I 68B54

4.95
5.95
6.95
6.45
3.50
6.75
3.95
7.95 .

BIT RATE
GENERATORS

OARTS

Z80B-CPU

3.75

Z80B-CTC

4.25

Z80B-PIO

4.25

Z80B-DART

14.95

Z80B-SIO/0

12.95

Z80B-SIO/2

12.95

Z8671 ZILOG

19.95

CLOCK
CIRCUITS

MM5369 1.95

MM5369-EST 1.95
MM58167 12.95
MM58174 11.95
t MSM5B32 2.95 ,

AY5-1013

3.95

AY3-1015

4.95

TR1602

3.95

2651

4.95

IM6402

6.95

IM6403

9.95

INS8250

6.95

SOUND CHIPS

1.0MHz

1.8432

2.0

2.4576

2.5
| 4.0

5.0688

6.0

6.144

8.0

10.0

12.0

12.480

15.0

16.0

18.432

20.0
[24.0

5.95
5.95
5.95
5.95
4.95
4.95
4.95
4.95
4.95
4.95
4.95
4.95
4.95
4.95
4.95
4.95
4.95
4.95 .

MISC.

76477

76489

SSI-263

AY3-8910

AY3-8912

L spiooo

3.95
8.95
39.95
12.95
12.95
39.00 A

TMS99531
I TMS99532

ULN2003

3242
| 3341

MC3470

MC3480

MC3487

11C90

2513-001 UP

AY5-2376
L AY5-3600 PRO 11.95 j

9.95

19.95

.79

7.95

4.95

1.95

8.95

2.95

13.95

6.95

11.95

74LS00
74LS01
74LS02
74LS03
74LS04
74LS05
74LS08
74LS09
74LS10
74LS11
74LS12
74LS13
74LS14
74LS15
74LS20
74LS21
74LS22
74LS27
74LS28
74LS30
74LS32
74LS33
74LS37
74LS38
74LS42
74LS47
74LS48
74LS51
74LS73
74LS74
74LS75
74LS76
74LS83
74LS85
74LS86
74LS90
74LS92
74LS93
74LS95
74LS107
74LS109
74LS112
74LS122
74LS123
74LS124
74LS125
74LS126
74LS132
74LS133
74LS136
74LS138
74LS139
74LS145
74LS147
74LS148
74LS151
74LS153
74LS154
74LS155
74LS156
74LS157
74LS158
74LS160
74LS161
74LS162
74LS163
L 74LS164

.18
.18
.18
.16
.22
.22
.26
.39
.26
.17
.22
.22
.23
.26
.17
.18
.28
.26
.26
.39

.29
.24
.29
.29
.49
.49
.22
.39
.49
.39
.49
.34
.36
-29
-45
.49

2.75
.39
.39
.39
.49
.39
.39
.39
.99
.99
.99
.39
.39

1.49
-59
.49
-35
.29
.29
.39
.49
.39
-49

74LS165
74LS166
74LS169
74LS173
74LS174
74LS175
74LS191
74LS192
74LS193
74LS194
74LS195
74LS196
74LS197
74LS221
74LS240
74LS241
74LS242
74LS243
74LS244
74LS245
74LS251
74LS253
74LS256 1.79
74LS257 .39
74LS258 .49
74LS259 1.29
74LS260 .49
74LS266
74LS273
74LS279
74LS280 1.98
74LS283 .59
74LS290 .89
74LS293 .89
74LS299 1.49
74LS322 3.95
74LS323 2.49
74LS364 1.95
74LS365
74LS367
74LS368
74LS373
74LS374
74LS375
74LS377
74LS378 1.18
74LS390 1.19
74LS393 .79
74LS541 1.49
74LS624 1.95
74LS640 .99
74LS645 .99
74LS669 1.29
74LS670 .89
74LS682 3.20
74LS683 3.20
74LS684 3.20
74LS688 2.40
74LS783 22.95
81LS95 1.49
81LS96 1.49
81LS97 1.49
81LS98 1.49
25LS2521 2.80
25LS2569 2.80
26LS31 1.95
26LS32 1.95

.49

.69

.59

.69
.79
.49
.49

.39
.79
.39

.39

.79
.95
.79

HIGH SPEED CMOS

A new family of high speed CMOS logic featuring
the speed of low power Schottky (8ns typical gate
propagation delay), combined with the advantages of
CMOS: very low power consumption, superior noise
immunity, and improved output drive.

74HC00

74HC: Operate at CMOS logic levelsand are ideal
for new. all-CMOS designs.

74HC00 .59 74HC148

74HC02 .59 74HC151

74HC04 .59 74HC154

74HC08 .59 74HC157

74HC10 .59 74HC158

74HC14 .79 74HC163

74HC20 .59 74HC175

74HC27 .59 74HC240

74HC30 .59 74HC244

74HC32 .69 74HC245

74HC51 .59 74HC257

74HC74 .75 74HC259

74HC85 1.35 74HC273

74HC86 .69 74HC299

74HC93 1.19 74HC368

74HC107 .79 74HC373

74HC109 .79 74HC374

74HC112 .79 74HC390

74HC125 1.19 74HC393

74HC132 1.19 74HC4017

74HC133 .69 74HC4020

74HC138 .99 74HC4049

74HC139 .99 74HC4050

1.19

.89
2.49

.89

.95
1.15

.99
1.89
1.89
1.89

.85
1.39
1.89
4.99

.99
2.29
2.29
1.39
1.39
1.99
1.39

.89

74HCT00

74HCT: Direct, drop-in replacements for LS TTL
and can be intermixed with 74LS in the same circuit.

74HCT00

74HCT02

74HCT04

74HCT08

74HCT10

74HCT11

74HCT27

74HCT30

74HCT32

74HCT74

74HCT75

74HCT138

74HCT139

74HCT154

74HCT157

74HCT158

74HCT161

74HCT164

.79

.85

.95

1.15

1.15

2.99

.99

.99

1.29

1.39

74HCT166

74HCT174

74HCT193

74HCT194

74HCT240

74HCT241

74HCT244

74HCT245

74HCT257

74HCT259

74HCT273

74HCT367

74HCT373

74HCT374

74HCT393

74HCT4017

74HCT4040

74HCT4060

3.05
1.09
1.39
1.19
2.19
2.19
2.19
2.19
.99
1.59
2.09
1.09
2.49
2.49
1.59
2.19
1.59
1.49 J

74F00

74F00

.69

74F74 .79

74F251 1.69

74F02

.69

74F86 .99

74F253 1.69

74F04

.79

74F138 1.69

74F257 1.69

74F08

.69

74F139 1.69

74F280 1.79

74F10

.69

74F157 1.69

74F283 3.95

74F32

.69

74F240 3.29

74F373 4.29

L74F64

.89

74F244 3.29

74F374 4.29

VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE LOCATED AT 1256 SOUTH BASCOM AVENUE IN SAN JOSE

fij

Microdevices

_ _ % Bascom Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128

800-538-5000 • 800-662-6279 (CA) • (408) 995-5430
FAX (408) 275-8415 • Telex 171-110

HOURS: M-W-F, 9-5 Ty-TH,9-9 SAT, 10-3

PLEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING

TERMS: Minimum order $10.00. For shipping and handling include $230 for UPS
Ground and $3.50 for UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. and foreign orders may require
additional shipping charges - please contact our sales department lor the amount C A.
residents must include applicable sales tax. All merchandise is warranted for 90 days
unless otherwise stated. Prices are subject to change without notice We are not
responsible tor typographical errors. We reserve the right to limit quantities and to
substitute manufacturer. All merchandise subject lo prior sate.

©COPYRIGHT 1985JDR MICRODEVICES, INC.
THE JDR MICRODEVICES LOGO IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF JDR MICRODEVICES. JDR INSTRUMENTS AND JDR MICRODEVICES ARE TRADEMARKS OF JDR MICRODEVICES.
IBM IS A TRADEMARK OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES. APPLE IS A TRADEMARK OF APPLE COMPUTER.

448 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry I77

PARTIAL LISTING ONLY — CALL FOR A FREE CATALOG

CMOS

4001

.19

14419

4.95

4011

.19

14433

14.95

4012

.25

4503

.49

4013

.35

4511

.69

4015

.29

4516

.79

4016

.29

4518

.85

4017

.49

4522

.79

4018

.69

4526

.79

4020

.59

4527

1.95

4021

.69

4528

.79

4024

.49

4529

2.95

4025

.25

4532

1.95

4027

.39

4538

.95

4028

.65

4541

1.29

4035

.69

4553

5.79

4040

.69

4585

.75

4041

.75

4702

12.95

4042

.59

74C00

.29

4043

.85

74C14

.59

4044

.69

74C74

.59

4045

1.98

74C83

1.95

4046

.69

74C85

1.49

4047

.69

74C95

.99

4049

.29

74C150

5.75

4050

.29

74C151

2.25

4051

.69

74C161

.99

4052

.69

74C163

.99

4053

.69

74C164

1.39

4056

2.19

74C192

1.49

4060

.69

74C193

1.49

4066

.29

74C221

1.75

4069

.19

74C240

1.89

4076

.59

74C244

1.89

4077

.29

74C374

1.99

4081

.22

74C905 10.95

4085

.79

74C911

8.95

4086

.89

74C917

8.95

4093

.49

74C922

4.49

4094

2.49

74C923

4.95

14411

9.95

74C926

7.95

14412

6.95

80C97

.95

100

PIN ST

S-100

.125

3.95

100

PIN WW

S-100

.125

4.95

62

PIN ST

IBM PC

.100

1.95

50

PIN ST

APPLE

.100

2.95

44

PIN ST

STD

.156

1.95

44

PIN WW

STD

.156

4.95

7400/9000

7400

.19

74147

2.49

7402

.19

74148

1.20

7404

.19

74150

1.35

7406

.29

74151

.55

7407

.29

74153

.55

7408

.24

74154

1.49

7410

.19

74155

.75

7411

.25

74157

.55

7414

.49

74159

1.65

7416

.25

74161

.69

7417

.25

74163

.69

7420

.19

74164

.85

7423

.29

74165

.85

7430

.19

74166

1.00

7432

.29

74175

.89

7438

.29

74177

.75

7442

.49

74178

1.15

7445

.69

74181

2.25

7447

.89

74182

.75

7470
7473

.35

74184

2.00

.34

74191

1.15

7474

.33

74192

.79

7475

.45

74194

.85

7476

.35

74196

.79

7483

.50

74197

.75

7485

.59

74199

1.35

7486

.35

74221

1.35

7489

2.15

74246

1.35

7490

.39

74247

1.25

7492

.50

74248

1.85

7493

.35

74249

1.95

7495

.55

74251

.75

7497

2.75

74265

1.35

74100

2.29

74273

1.95

74121

.29

74278

3.11

74123

.49

74367

.65

74125

.45

74368

.65

74141

.65

9368

3.95

74143

5.95

9602

1.50

74144

2.95

9637

2.95

74145

.60

96S02

1.95 J

74S00

EDGECARD CONNECTORS

74S00

.29

74S163

74S02

.29

74S168

74S03

.29

74S174

74S04

.29

74S175

74S05

.29

74S188

74S08

.35

74S189

74S10

.29

74S195

74S15

.35

74S196

74S30

.29

74S197

74S32

.35

74S226

74S37

.69

74S240

74S38

.69

74S241

74S74

.49

74S244

74S85

.95

74S257

74S86

.35

74S253

74S112

.50

74S258

74S124

2.75

74S280

74S138

.79

74S287

74S140

.55

74S288

74S151

.79

74S299

74S153

.79

74S373

74S157

.79

74S374

74S158

.95

74S471

74S161

1.29

74S571

1.29

3.95

.79

.79

1.95

1.95

1.49

1.49

1.49

3.99

1.49

1.49

1.49

.79

.79

.95

1.95

1.69

1.69

2.95

1.69

DATA ACQ INTERFACE

ADC0800 15.55

8T26

1.29

ADC0804

3.49

8T28

1.29

ADC0809

4.49

8T95

.89

ADC0816 14.95

8T96

.89

ADC0817

9.95

8T97

.59

ADC0831

8.95

8T98

.89

DAC0800

4.49

DM8131

2.95

DAC0806

1.95

DP8304

2.29

DAC0808

2.95

DS8833

2.25

DAC1020

8.25

DS8835

1.99

DAC1022

5.95

DS8836

.99

MC1408L8 2.95

DS8837

1.65

36 PIN CENTRONICS

MALE

IDCEN36 RIBBON CABLE 6.95

I CEN36 SOLDER CUP 4.95

CEN36PC RT ANGLE PC MOUNT 4.95

FEMALE

LIDCEN36/F RIBBON CABLE 7.95,

f INTERSIL

ICL7106

9.95

1CL7107

12.95

ICL7660

2.95

ICL8038

4.95

ICM7207A

5.95

I ICM7208

15.95

VOLTAGE
REGULATORS

TO-220 CASE

7805T .49 7905T .59

7808T .49 7908T .59

7812T .49 7912T .59

7815T .49 7915T .59

TO-3 CASE

7805K 1.39 7905K 1.49
7812K 1.39 7912K 1.49

TO-92 CASE

78L05 .49 79L05 .69
78L12 .49 79L12 .69

OTHER VOLTAGE REGS

LM323K5V 3A TO-3 4.79
LM338KAdj.5A TO-3 3.95
78H05K5V 5A TO-3 7.95
78H12K12V5A TO-3 8.95
78P05K5V 10A TO 3 14.95

LINEAR

IC SOCKETS

1-99

100

8 PIN ST

.13

.11

14 PIN ST

.15

.12

16 PIN ST

.17

.13

18 PIN ST

.20

.18

20 PIN ST

.29

.27

22 PIN ST

.30

.27

24 PIN ST

.30

.27

28 PIN ST

.40

.32

40 PIN ST

.49

.39

64 PIN ST

4.25

CALL

ST=SOLDERTAIL

8 PIN WW

.59

.49

14 PIN WW

.69

.52

16 PIN WW

.69

.58

18 PIN WW

.99

.90

20 PIN WW

1.09

.98

22 PIN WW

1.39

1.28

24 PIN WW

1.49

1.35

28 PIN WW

1.69

1.49

40 PIN WW

1.99

1.80

WW=WIREWRAP

16 PIN ZIF

4.95

CALL

24 PIN ZIF

5.95

CALL

28 PIN ZIF

6.95

CALL

40 PIN ZIF

9.95

CALL

ZIF=TEXTOOL

(ZERO INSERTION FORCE)

TL066

.99

LM733

.98

TL071

.69

LM741

.29

TL072

1.09

LM747

.69

TL074

1.95

LM748

.59

TL081

.59

MC1330

1.69

TL082

.99

MC1350

1.19

TL084

1.49

MC1372

6.95

LM301

.34

LM1414

1.59

LM309K

1.25

LM1458

.49

LM311

.59

LM1488

.49

LM311H

.89

LM1489

.49

LM317K

3.49

LM1496

.85

LM317T

.95

LM1812

8.25

LM318

1.49

LM1889

1.95

LM319

1.25

ULN2003

.79

LM320 see7900

XR2206

3.75

LM322

1.65

XR2211

2.95

LM323K

4.79

XR2240

1.95

LM324

.49

MPQ2907

1.95

LM331

3.95

LM2917

1.95

LM334

1.19

CA3046

.89

LM335

1.40

CA3081

.99

LM336

1.75

CA3082

.99

LM337K

3.95

CA3086

.80

LM338K

3.95

CA3089

1.95

LM339

.59

CA3130E

.99

LM340 see7800

CA3146

1.29

LM350T

4.60

CA3160

1.19

LF353

.59

MC3470

1.95

LF356

.99

MC3480

835

LF357

.99

MC3487

2.95

LM358

.59

LM3900

.49

LM380

.89

LM3909

.98

LM383

1.95

LM3911

2.25

LM386

.89

LM3914

2.39

LM393

.45

MC4024

3.49

LM394H

4.60

MC4044

3.99

TL494

4.20

RC4136

1.25

TL497

3.25

RC4558

.69

NE555

.29

LM13600

1.49

NE556

.49

75107

1.49

NE558

1.29

75110

1.95

NE564

1.95

75150

1.95

LM565

-95

75154

1.95

LM566

1.49

75188

1.25

LM567

.79

75189

1.25

NE570

2.95

75451

.39

NE590

2.50

75452

.39

NE592

.98

75453

.39

LM710

.75

75477

1.29

LM723

.49

75492

.79

H = TO-5CAN, K

TO-3, T=TO-220

DIP CO

INNECTORS

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

8

14

16

18

20

22

24

28

40

HIGH RELIABILITY TOOLED
ST IC SOCKETS

AUGATxxST

.62

.79

.89

1.09

1.29

1.39

1.49

1.69

2.49

HIGH RELIABILITY TOOLED
WW IC SOCKETS

AUGATxxWW

1.30

1.80

2.10

2.40

2.50

2.90

3.15

3.70

5.40

COMPONENT CARRIES
(DIP HEADERS)

ICCxx

.49

.59

.69

.99

.99

.99

.99

1.09

1.49

RIBBON CABLE
DIP PLUGS (IDC)

IDPxx

.95

.95

1.75

2.95

DIODES/OPTO/TRANSISTORS

FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS SEE D-SUBMINIATURE BELOW

\ \ w ii ii i i i i

AUGAT24ST

1N751

.25

4N26

.69

1N759

.25

4N27

.69

1N4148

25/1.00

4N28

.69

1N4004

10/1.00

4N33

.89

1N5402

.25

4N37

1.19

KBP04

.55

MCT-2

.59

KBU8A

.95

MCT-6

1.29

MDA990-2

.35

TIL-111

.99

N2222

.25

2N3906

.10

PN2222

.10

2N4401

.25

2N2905

.50

2N4402

.25

2N2907

.25

2N4403

.25

2N3055

.79

2N6045

1.75

2N3904

.10

TIP31

.49

D-S

UDMINIATURE

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

9

15

19

25

37

50

SOLDER CUP

MALE

DBxxP

.82

.90

1

25

1.25

1.80

3.48

FEMALE

DBxxS

.95

1.15

1

50

1.50

2.35

4.32

RIGHT ANGLE
PC SOLDER

MALE

DBxxPR

1.20

1.49

1.95

2.65

FEMALE

DBxxSR

1.25

1.55

2.00

2.79

WIRE WRAP

MALE

DBxxPWW

1.69

2.56

3.89

5.60

FEMALE

DBxxSWW

2.76

4.27

6.84

9.95

IDC
RIBBON CABLE

MALE

IDBxxP

2.70

2.95

3.98

5.70

FEMALE

IDBxxS

2.92

3.20

4.33

6.76

HOODS

METAL

MHOODxx

1.25

1.25

1

30

1.30

GREY

HOODxx

.65

.65

.65

.75

.95

ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS: INSERT THE NUMBER OF CONTACTS IN THE POSITION

MARKED "xx" OF THE "ORDER BY" PART NUMBER LISTED.

EXAMPLE: A 15 PIN RIGHT ANGLE MALE PC SOLDER WOULD BE DB15PR.

MOUNTING HARDWARE $1.00

IDC CONNECTORS

DESCRIPTION

ORDER BY

CONTACTS

10

20

26

34

40

50

SOLDER HEADER

IDHxxS

.82

1.29

1.68

2.20

2.58

3.24

RIGHTANGLE SOLDER HEADER

IDHxxSR

.85

1.35

1.76

2.31

2.72

3.39

WW HEADER

IDHxxW

1.86

2.98

3.84

4.50

5.28

6.63

RIGHT ANGLE WW HEADER

IDHxxWR

2.05

3.28

4.22

4.45

4.80

7.30

RIBBON HEADER SOCKET

IDSxx

.79

.99

1.39

1.59

1.99-

2.25

RIBBON HEADER

IDMxx

5.50

6.25

7.00

7.50

8.50

RIBBON EDGECARD

IDExx

1.75

2.25

2.65

2.75

3.80

3.95

FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS SEE D-SUBMINIATURE ABOVE

HARD TO FIND
"SNAPADLE" HEADERS

CAN BE SNAPPED APARTTO

MAKE ANY SIZE HEADER,

ALLWITH.1" CENTERS

SHORTING
BLOCKS

| 1x40 STRAIGHT LEAD

1x40 RIGHTANGLE

2x40 STRAIGHT LEAD

[2x40 RIGHTANGLE

.99
1.49
2.49
2.£

GOLD

CONTACTS

SPACED

AT.V

CENTERS

,5/Sl.OO

1

LED DISPLAYS

FND-357(359)

COM CATHODE

.362"

1.25

FND-500(503)

COM CATHODE

.5"

1.49

FND-507(510)

COM ANODE

.5"

1.49

MAN-72

COM ANODE

.3"

,99

MAN-74

COM CATHODE

.3"

.99

MAN-8940

COM CATHODE

.8"

1.99

TIL-313

COM CATHODE

.3"

.45

HP5082-7760

COM CATHODE

.43"

1.29

TIL 311 4x7 HEXW/LOGIC

.270"

9.95

HP5082-7340 4x7 HEXW/LOGIC

.290"

7.95

DIFFUSED LEOS mb

100-UP

JUMBO RED

T1V< .10

.09

JUMBO GREEN

T1V« .14

.12

JUMBO YELLOW

1VA .14

.12

MOUNTING HDW

TlV* .10

.09

MINI RED

T1 .10

.09

SWITCHES

SPST MINI-TOGGLE ON-ON

DPDT MINI-TOGGLE ON-ON

DPDT MINI-TOGGLE ON-OFF-ON

| SPST MINI-PUSHBUTTON N.O.

SPST MINI-PUSHBUTTON N.C.

| SPST TOGGLE ON-OFF
BCD OUTPUT 10 POSITION 6 PIN DIP

1.25 I

1.50 I

1.75 I

.39 I

.39 I

.49

1.95

DIP SWITCHES

4 POSITION -85 7 POSITION .95

5 POSITION 90 8 POSITION .95

L 6 POSITION .90 10 POSITION 1.29 A

It was a pleasure to place an order with your

people. I found the response pleasant and
helpful and the answers prompt and correct .The
de-livery on my most recent order was fast,
oorrect and well packed . I already had faith in
the quality since my family has been using some
| of your products for several years with no
problems.

Sincerely, J.D. Hattaway

CALL FOR VOLUME QUOTES © copyright i 98 sjdrm,<

F

IDDON CAD

LE

CONTACTS

SINGLE COLOR

COLOR CODED

1'

10'

r

10'

10

.18

1.60

.30

2.75

16

.28

2.50

.48

4.40

20

.36

3.20

.60

5.50

25

-45

4.00

.75

6.85

26

.46

4.10

.78

7.15

34

.61

5.40

1.07

9.35

40

.72

6.40

1.20

11.00

50

.89

7.50

1.50

13.25

D COPYRIGHT 1985 JDR MICRODEVICES

Inquiry 1 77

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 449

order toll free 800-538-5000 800-662-6279 (ca)

BARGAIN HUNTERS GORNER
DISK DRIVE SPECIALS

TEAC FD-54

Vi HEIGHT, IBM

QUME QT-1

1 / 2 HEIGHT, IB

. 5 1 A" DS/DD $85°° I

riBLE DIRECT DRIVE

5W0S/DD
BELTDRIVE

$69 9

SHUGARTSA-81Qm^. 8'SS/DD $99 95

V? HEIGHT DIRECT DRIVE, CF/M COMPATIBLE

TS-806 CABINET & POWER RIPPLY $99 95

ONE TEAC FD-558 AND ROOM FOR A FULL OR Yi
HEIGHT HARD DISK, A CLOSE-OUT SPECIAL FROM A
MAJOR MANUFACTURER (WE CANT SAY WHO),
PERFECT FOR THE HOBBYIST!

HURRY — QUANTITIES ARE LIMITED!
SPECIALS END 2/28/86

PAGE WIRE WRAP WIRE

PRECUT ASSORTMENT

IN ASSORTED COLORS $27.50

100ea: 5.5". 6.0". 6.5", 7.0"

250ea: 2.5", 4.5", 5.0"

500ea:3.0", 3.5", 4.0"

SPOOLS

250 feet $7.25
1000feet$21.95

100 feet $4.30
I 500 feet $13.25

Please specify color:

Blue, Black, Yellow or Red

EMI FILTER

' MANUFACTURED
BYCORCOM

• LOWCOST

• FITS LC-HP BELOW
» 6 AMP 120/240 VOLT

6 FOOT LINE CORDS

J LC-2 2 CONDUCTOR .39

| LC-3 2 CONDUCTOR .99
| LC-HP 3 CONDUCTOR W/STD

FEMALE SOCKET 1.49

MUFFIN FANS

WIRE WRAP PROTOTYPE CARDS

FR-4 EPOXY GLASS LAMINATE
WITH GOLD-PLATED EDGE-CARD FINGERS

IBM-PR2

IBM

BOTH CARDS HAVE SILK SCREENED LEGENDS

AND INCLUDES MOUNTING BRACKET

IBM-PR1 WITH +5V AND GROUND PLANE ....$27.95

IBM-PR2 AS ABOVE WITH DECODING LAYOUT $29.95

S-100

P100-1 BARE - NO FOIL PADS $15.15

P100-2 HORIZONTALBUS $21.80

P100-3 VERTICAL BUS $21.80

P100-4 SINGLE FOILPADSPER HOLE $22.75

APPLE

P500-1 BARE - NO FOIL PADS S15.15

P500-3 HORIZONTALBUS S22.75

P500-4 SINGLE FOIL PADS PER HOLE S21.80

.7060-45 FOR APPLE lie AUX SLOT S30.00 .

SOCKET-WRAP I.D.™

* SLIPS OVER WIRE WRAP PINS

* IDENTIFIES PIN NUMBERS ON WRAP
SIDE OF BOARD

* CAN WRITE ON PLASTIC; SUCH AS IC#

>INS

PART#

PCK. OF

PRICE

8

IDWRAP 08

10

1.95

14

IDWRAP 14

10

1.95

16

IDWRAP 16

10

1.95

18

IDWRAP 18

5

1.95

20

IDWRAP 20

5

1.95

22

IDWRAP 22

5

1.95

24

IDWRAP 24

5

1.95

28

IDWRAP 28

5

1.95

40

IDWRAP 40

5

1.95

PLEASE ORDER BY NUMBER OF
PACKAGES (PCK. OF)

FRAME STYLE
TRANSFORMERS

2 AMP 5.95

4 AMP 7.95

8 AMP 10.95

2 AMP 7.95 J

CAPACITORS

TANTALUM

1.0//f

15V

.35

.47/t/f

35V

.45

6.8

15V

.70

1.0

35V

.45

10

15V

.80

2.2

35V

.65

22

15V

1.35

4.7

35V

.85

.22

35V

.40

10

35V

1.00

DISC

lOpf

50V

.05

680

50V

.05

22

50V

.05

.001//1

50V

.05

27

50V

.05

.0022

50V

.05

33

50V

.05

.005

50V

.05

47

50V

.05

.01

50V

.07

68

50V

.05

.02

50V

.07

100

50V

.05

.05

50V

.07

220

50V

.05

.1

12V

.10

560

50V

.05

.1

50V

.12

MONOLITHIC

-0"M

50V

.14

.1//1

50V

.18

.047^

50V

.15

.47//f

50V

.25

ELECTROLYTIC

RADIAL

AXIAL

1/if

25V

.14

Ijtrf

50V

.14

2.2

35V

.15

10

50V

■ 16

4.7

50V

.15

22

16V

.14

10

50V

.15

47

50V

.20

47

35V

.18

100

35V

.25

100

16V

.18

220

25V

.30

220

35V

.20

470

50V

.50

470

25V

.30

1000

16V

.60

2200

16V

.70

2200

16V

.70

4700

25V

1.45

4700

16V

1.25

COMPUTER GRADE

44,000/yf

30V

3.95J

25PIND-SUB

GENDER

CHANGERS

$7.95

DATARASE EPROM ERASER $34.95

* ERASES TWO EPROMS IN 10 MINUTES
» COMPACT-NO DRAWER

* THIN METAL SHUTTER
PREVENTS UV LIGHT
FROM ESCAPING

Vfl WATT RESISTORS

5% CARBON FILM ALL STANDARD VALUES
FROM 1 OHM TO 10 MEG. OHM

10 PCS samevalue .05 1 00 PCS same value .02

I 50 PCS samevalue .025 1000 PCS samevalue .015

RESISTOR NETWORKS

SIP

10 PIN

9 RESISTOR

.69

SIP

8 PIN

7 RESISTOR

.59

DIP

16 PIN

8 RESISTOR

1.09

DIP

16 PIN

15 RESISTOR

1.09

DIP

14 PIN

7 RESISTOR

.99

I DIP

14 PIN

13 RESISTOR

.99

SPECIALS ON BYPASS CAPACITORS

.01 fjf CERAMIC DISC 100/S5.00

.01 //f MONOLITHIC 100/S10.00

.1 //f CERAMIC DISC 100/S6.50

.1 //f MONOLITHIC 100/S12.50 ,

PS-IBM

SWITCHING POWER SUPPLIES

$99.95 l^fflfe^

• FOR IBM PC-XT COMPATIBLE
» 130 WATTS

» +5V @ 15A, t12V@4.2A PS-IBM

-5V@ 5A, -12V @ .5A

• ONE YEAR WARRANTY

PS-130 $99.95

<■ 130 WATTS

» SWITCH ON REAR

• FOR USE IN OTHER IBM
TYPE MACHINES

» 90 DAY WARRANTY PS-13C

PS-A

$49.95

» USE TO POWER APPLE TYPE

SYSTEMS
<■ +5V @4A, +12V@2.5A

-5V @ .5A, -12V @ .5A
> APPLE POWER CONNECTOR

PS-SPL200

$49.95

* 5V@25A, +12V@ 3.5A

-5V@ 1A, -12V @ 1A
» UL APPROVED
. ALUMINUM ENCLOSURE

PS-TDK

$29.95

» +5V @4A,-12V@ 2A

+ 12V @ 2.8A, -12V @ .30A
- 6.2" x 7 .4" x 1.7". 16 LBS.

PS-11951

$29.95

> MANUFACTURED BY ASTEC

> +5V @ 6A. +12V@2A

+ 12V@ 1.5A, -12V @2A.
» 5.0" x 8.0" x 2.0", 1.6 LBS.

NEW DOOKS DY
STEVE CIARCIA

| BIULD YOUR OWN

Z80 COMPUTER S

I CIRCUIT CELLAR VOL 1 $

CIRCUIT CELLAR VOL 2 S

I CIRCUIT CELLAR VOL 3 S

I CIRCUIT CELLAR VOL 4 S

PS-SPL200

MICROCOMPUTER
HARDWARE HANDBOOK

FROMELGOMP $14.95

OVER 800 PAGES OF DATA SHEETS
ON THE MOST COMMONLY USED
ICs. INCLUDES TTL, CMOS, 74LS00,
MEMORY, CPUs, MPU SUPPORT.
L AND MUCH MORE!

WIS

H SOLDERL

ESSB

READBOA

RDS

§§■■■1

1 PART
NUMBER

DIMENSIONS

DISTRIBUTION
STRIP(S>

TIE
POINTS

TERMINAL
STRIP(S)

TIE
POINTS

BINDING
POSTS

PRICE

ll

WBU-D

.38 x 6.50"

1

100

2.95

1 1

WBU-T

1.38x6.50"

.1

630

6.95

.■

WBU-204-3

3.94x8.45"

1

100

2

1260

2

17.95

1 1

WBU-204

5.13x8.45"

4

400

2

1260

3

24.95

1 1

WBU-206

6.88 x9.06"

5

500

3

1890

4

29.95

11

1 WBU-208

8.25 x 9.45"

7

700

4

2520

4

39.95

WBU-208 J

LITHIUM BATTERY WlC MASTER $79.95

AS USED IN CLOCK CIRCUITS

3 VOLT BATTERY S3.95

BATTERY HOLDER SI. 49

THE INDUSTRY STANDARD,

VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE LOCATED AT 1256 SOUTH BASCOM AVENUE IN SAN JOSE

JDR Microdevices

1224 S. Bascom Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128

800-538-5000 • 800-662-6279 (CA) • (408) 995-5430

FAX (408) 275-8415 • Telex 171-110

HOURS: M-W-F, 9-5 TU-TH, 9-9 SAT, 10-3

PLEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING

TERMS: Minimum order $10.00. For shipping and handling Include $250 (or UPS
Ground and $3.50 for UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. and foreign orders may require
additional shipping charges - please contact our sales department lor the amount C A.
-* '-elude applicable sales tax. All merchandise Is warranted tor 90 days
stated. Prices are subject to change without notice. We are not
responsmie tor Typographical errors. We reserve the right to limit quantities and to
substitute manufacturer. All merchandise subject to prior sale.

© Copyright 1985 JDR Microdevices

450 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

Inquiry I 78

PARTIAL LISTING ONLY — CALL FOR A FREE CATALOG

DISK DRIVES

FOR APPLE COMPUTERS

AP-150
$99.95

* V2HT, DIRECT DRIVE

* 100% APPLE COMPATIBLE

* SIX MONTH WARRANTY

BAL-500
$129.95

■■■■.■■■.. ■:

* TEAC MECHANISM-DIRECT DRIVE

* 100% APPLE COMPATIBLE

* FULL ONE YEAR WARRANTY

AP-135
$129.95

* FULL HT SHUGART MECHANISM

* DIRECT REPLACEMENT FOR APPLE
DISK II

> SIX MONTH WARRANTY

MAC535
$249.95

- 3.5" ADD-ON DISK DRIVE

• 100% MACINTOSH COMPATABLE

* SINGLE SIDED 400K BYET STORAGE
» HIGH RELIABILITY DRIVE

HAS AUTO-EJECT MECHANISM
► FULL ONE YEAR WARRANTY

AD-3C
$139.95

* 100% APPLE lie COMPATIBLE,
READY TO PLUG IN. W/SHIELDED
CABLE & MOLDED 19 PIN
CONNECTOR

* FAST, RELIABLE SLIMLINE DIRECT
DRIVE

* SIX MONTH WARRANTY

DISK DRIVE ACCESSORIES

FDD CONTROLLER CARD $49.95
He ADAPTOR CABLE $19.95

ADAPTS STANDARD APPLE DRIVES
FOR USE WITH APPLE lie

KB-1000

$79.95

CASE WITH KEYBOARD
FOR APPLE TYPE MOTHERBOARD

* USER DEFINED FUNCTION KEYS

* NUMERIIC KEYPAD WITH
CURSOR CONTROL

* CAPS LOCK • AUTO-REPEAT

KEYBOARD-AP $49.95

* REPLACEMENT FOR APPLE II

KEYBOARD
» CAPS LOCK KEY, AUTO-REPEAT
» ONE KEY ENTRY OF BASIC

OR CP/M COMMANDS

EXTENDER CARDS

IBM-PC $45.00

I 1BM-AT $68.00

APPLE II $45.00

1 APPLE lie $45.00

[MULTIBUS $86.00,

APPLE COMPATIBLE
INTERFACE CARDS

EPROM PROGRAMMER $59.95

MODEL
RP525

* DUPLICATEOR BURN ANY
STANDARD 27xx SERIES EPROM

* EASY TO USE MENU-DRIVEN
SOFTWARE IS INCLUDED

* MENU SELECTION FOR 2716,
2732, 2732A, 2764 AND 27128

* HIGH SPEED WRITE ALGORITHM

* LED INDICATORS FOR ACTIVITY
. NO EXTERNAL POWER SUPPLY

NEEDED

* ONE YEAR WARRANTY

m. 3-WAY SWITCH BOXES

SERIAL OR PARALLEL

CONNECTS 3 PRINTERS TO ONE

COMPUTER OR VICE VERSA

ALL LINES SWITCHES

HIGH QUALITY ROTARY SWITCH MOUNTED

ON PCB

GOLD CONTACTS

STURDY METAL ENCLOSURE

ry

SWITCH-3P CENTRONICS PARALLEL $99.95
SWITCHES RS232 SERIAL $99.95

16KRAMCARD

$39.95

FULL TWO YEAR WARRANTY

EXPAND YOUR 48K APPLE TO

64K

USE IN PLACE OF APPLE

LANGUAGE CARD

BARE PC CARO IN/INSTRUCTIONS $9.95

IC TEST CARD

$99.95

QUICKLY TESTS MANY COMMON

ICs

DISPLAYS PASS OR FAIL

ONE YEAR WARRANTY

TESTS: 4000 SERIES CMOS,
74HC SERIES CMOS,
7400,74LS,74L,74H &74S

[300B MODEM $49.95

FOR APPLE OR IBM

INCLUDES ASCII PRO-EZ SOFTWARE

» FCC APPROVED

» BELLSYSTEMS 103 COMPATIBLE

• INCLUDES AC ADAPTOR

» AUTO-DIAL/AUTO-ANSWFR

* DIRECT CONNECT

[CABLE FOR APPLE lie $14.95

[JOYSTICK CR401 $7.95

FOR ATARI 400, 800, 2600,
VIC 20/64 AND APPLE lie

DISKFILE

HOLDS 70 &W DISKETTES

[3.5 "DISKFILE holds 40 $9 fl! \

POWER STRIP

• UL APPROVED
» 15A CIRCUIT
BREAKER

$12.95

%%*%%%%

ML PRINTER BUFFERS

FREES COMPUTER FOR OTHER TASKS
WHILE PRINTING LONG DOCUMENTS
STAND-ALONE DESIGN; WORKS WITH ANY
COMPUTER OR PRINTER
ALL MODELS FEATURE PRINT PAUSE
MEMORY CHECK, GRAPHICS CAPABILITY

SP120P PARALLEL $139.95

64K UPGRADABLE TO 256K

LED INDICATORSHOWSVOLUME OF DATA

IN BUFFER

SP120S RS232 SERIAL $159.95

* 64K UPGRADABLE TO 256K

* 6 SELECTBALE BAUD RATES, FROM
600B-19.200B

SP110P PARALLEL $249.95

* 64K UPGRADABLE TO 512K

* SPOOLS OUTPUT OF UPTO 3 COMPUTERS

* LED BARGRAPH DISPLAYS AMOUNT OF
DATA IN BUFFER

* RESET FUNCTION CLEARS WF
DATA IN BUFFER £ _

* REPEAT FUNCTION CAN
PRODUCE MULTIPLE
COPIES OF A DOCUMENT

St-,

>f-J ■

NASHUA DISKETTES DEALS

5V«" SOFT SECTOR
DS/DDWITH HUB RINGS

$9 90 69Cea 590ea

BOK OF 10 BULK QTY SO BULK QTY 250

NASHUA DISKETTES WERE JUDGED

TO HAVE THE HIGHEST POLISH

AND RECORDED AMPLITUDE OF ANY

DISKETTESTESTED ACCORDING TO

"COMPARING FLOPPY DISKS", BYTE 9/84

DISKETTES
NASHUA 5i/4"

N-MD2D DS/DDSOFT

N-MD2F DS/QUAD SOFT

N-MD2H DS HDFORAT

N-FD1
N-FD2D

NASHUA 8"

SS/DD SOFT
DS/DD SOFT

NASHUA 3.5

$9.90
$34.95
$49.95

$27.95
$34.95

| N-3.5SS 3.5" SS/DD FOR MAC

VERBATIM 5V4"

I V-MD1D SS/DD SOFT

V-MD2D DS/DDSOFT

I V-MD110D SS/DD 10 SECTOR HARD

$23.95
$29.95
$23.95

Canon 160 GPS PRINTER

■ i n t

'.H.t:

or Proportional and NLQ

* EPSON/IBM COMPATIBLE CONTROL
CODES

* 11 x 9 DOT DRAFT MODE CHARACTERS

* 18 DOTS IN "NEAR LETTER QUALITY"

* 2K PRINT BUFFER

* DOWNLOADING FONT BUFFER

* FAN FOLD, CUT SHEET OR ROLL PAPER

* SOLID "BUSINESS" MACHINE

MODEL PW1080A

$199.95

CABLE TO IBM PC

$9.95

5V4" FLOPPY DISK DRIVES

I TEAC FD-55B'/2HTDS/DD(FOR IBM) ' $89.95

TEAC FD-55F Vi HT DS/QUAD {FOR IBM) $99.95
TEAC FD-55GFV V4 HF DS/HD(FOR IBM AT) $154.95

TANDON TM10O-2 DS/DD (FOR IBM) $99.95

TANDON TM50 2 Vi HT DS/DD (FOR IBM) $69.95

MPI-B52 DS/DD (FOR IBM) $89.95

QUME QT-142 Vi HT DS/DD (FOR IBM) $69.95

8" FLOPPY DISK DRIVES

FD 100-8 SS/DD(SA/801 EQUIV)
FD 200-8 DS/DD (SA/851 R EQUIV)

$119.00
$159 00

DISK DRIVE ACCESSORIES

I TEAC SPECIFICATION MANUAL $5.00 ,'

TEAC MAINTENANCE MANUAL $25.00

% HT MOUNTING HARDWARE $2.95

MOUNTING RAILS FOR IBM AT $4,95

"V" POWER CABLE FOR 5V«" FDDs $2.95

I 5V4" FDD POWER CONNECTORS $1.19

TEAC FD-55

TANDON TM100-2

DISK DRIVE EHCLOSURES

CAB-APPLE $24.95

APPLE TYPE CABINET W/OUT POWER SUPPLY

CIB-1FH5 $99.95

FULL HT 5V«" BEIGE CABINET W/POWER SUPPLY

CAB-2SV5 $49.95

DUAL SUMUNE 5V«" CABINET W/POWER SUPPLY

I CAB-2SV9 vertical $209.95

DUAL SUMUNE B" CABINET W/POWER SUPPLY

I CAB-2FH9 horizintal $219.95

DUAL FULL HT 8" CABINET W/POWER SUPPLY

TEST EQUIPMENT FROM JDR INSTRUMENTS
DIGITAL MULTIMETER PEN DPM-1000

AUTO RANGING. POLARITY AND DECIMAL!

$54.95

k LARGE 3.5 DIGIT

DISPLAY
► DATA HOLD SWITCH

FREEZES READING

* FAST, AUDIBLE CON-
TINUITY TEST

* LOW BATTERY
INDICATOR

* OVERLOAD PROTEC-
TION

20MHZ DUAL TRACE OSCILLOSCOPE MODEL 2000 $389.00
35MHZ DUAL TRACE OSCILLOSCOPE MODEL 3500 $549.00

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE OSCILLOSCOPES, SEE OUR FULL PAGE AD ON PAGE 109.

CALL FOR VOLUME QUOTES

©COPYRIGHT 1985 JDR MICRODEVICES

Inquiry 178

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 451

BUILD A COMPLETE XT SYSTEM— $698

XT COMPATIBLE
MOTHERBOARD

$169.00

* 4.77 MHz 8088 CPU. OPTIONAL
8087 CO-PROCESSOR

* 8 EXPANSION SLOTS

* OK RAM INSTALLED. EXPANDABLE
TO 640K ONBOARD MEMORY

* ALL ICs SOCKETED-HIGHEST
QUALITY PC BOARD

* ACCEPTS 2764 OR 27128 ROMS

[PRO-BIOS $29.95

Includes shortslotHD Controller,
cables, mounting hardware and
instructions. All drives are pre-
tested and come with a one year
[warranty.

HARD DISK SYSTEMS

10MD $389
20 Mb $489

IBM COMPATIBLE INTERFACE CARDS

ALL WITH A ONE YEAR WARRANTY

MULTI 1/0 FLOPPY CARD

$129.95

PERFECT FOR THE 640K MOTHERBOARD

* 2 DRIVE FLOPPY DISK CONTROLLER

* 1 RS232 SERIAL PORT; OPTIONAL2nd
SERIAL PORT

* PARALLEL PRINTER PORT

* GAME PORT

* CLOCK/CALENDAR

* SOFTWARE: CLOCK UTILITIES,
RAMDISK, SPOOLER

MULTIFUNCTION CARD

$119.95

ALL THE FEATURES OF AST'S 6 PACK PLUS AT HALF THE PRICE

• CLOCK/CALENDAR
■ 0-384K RAM

• SERIAL PORT
> PARALLEL PORT
. GAME PORT
. SOFTWARE INCLUDED

PRINTER CABLE $9.95

64K RAM UPGRADE 9/$8.9l

COLOR GRAPHICS ADAPTOR

FULLY COMPATIBLE WITH IBM COLOR CARD

$99.95

• 4 VIDEO INTERFACES: RGB,
COMPOSITE COLOR, HI-RES
COMPOSITE MONOCHROME,
CONNECTOR FOR RF MODULATOR

» COLOR GRAPHICS MODE: 320 x 200
» MONO GRAPHICS MODE: 640 x 200

• LIGHT PEN INTERFACE

MONOCHROME GRAPHICS CARD

$119.95

FULLY COMPATIBLE WITH IBM MONOCHROME ADAPTOR & HERCULES GRAPHICS

» LOTUS COMPATIBLE

• TEXT MODE: 80x25

• GRAPHICS MODE: 720 x 348
' PARALLEL PRINTER INTERFACE

• OPTIONAL SERIAL PORT S19.95

MONOCHROME ADAPTOR

$49.95

ANOTHER FANTASTIC VALUE FROM JDR!
• IBM COMPATIBLE 1TL OUTPUT . 720 x 350 PIXEL DIPLAY

| PLEASE NOTE: THIS CARD WILL NOT RUN LOTUS GRAPHICS AND DOES NOT INCLUDE A
PARALLEL PORT

FLOPPY DISK DRIVE ADAPTOR

$49.95

» INTERFACESUPTO FOURSTANDARD
FDDsTO IBM PC OR COMPATIBLES

» INCLUDES CABLE FOR TWO
INTERNAL DRIVES

* STANDARD DB37 FOR EXTERNAL
DRIVES

• RUNS QUAD DENSITY DRIVES
WHEN USED WITH JFORMAT

EASYDATA 1200 BAUD MODEM FOR IBM

INCLUDES PC TALK III COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE

» HAYES COMPATIBLE
- AUTO DIAL/AUTO ANSWER
» AUTO RE-DIAL ON BUSY
. INCLUDES SERIAL PORT!
► ONE YEAR WARRANTY

$169.95

#JDR Microdevices

CRT MONITORS FOR ALL APPLICATIONS

TAXAN

RGB VISION Ml

MODEL 415

| MADE FOR TAXAN BY ACORN

■ 640 x 262 PIXEL RESOLUTION
16 COLORS

18 MHj BANDWIDTH

■ 12" BLACK MATRIX

IBM AND LOTUS COMPATIBLE

I GABLEFOR IBM $15.95

SAKATA

COMPOSITE COLOR

MODEL SC-100

TOP RATED FOR APPLE
13 ' COMPOSITE VIDEO
RESOLUTION: 280H x 300V
INTERNAL AUDIO AMPLIFIER
ONE YEAR WARRANTY

SAMWOO/ALPHA

MONOCHROME

MODEL DM-216B

• PERFECT COSMETIC MATCH
FOR IBM PC

IBM COMPATIBLE TTL INPUT
12" NON-GLARE SCREEN
P39 GREEN PHOSPHOR
HI. RES 22 MHi BAND WIDTH

$289.95 $169.95 $99.95

BUILD YOUR OWN
NT COMPATIBLE SYSTEM!

NT MOTHERBOARD $169.00

PRO-BIOS $29.95

64KRAM $8.91

130 WATT POWER SUPPLY $09.95
FLIP-TOP CASE $49.95

DNM-2000 NEYBOARD $79.95
Vz HEIGHT DISK DRIVE $09.95
FLOPPY DISK CONTROLLER $49.95
MONOCHROME ADAPTOR . $49.95
MONOCHROME MONITOR $99.95

TOTAL: $697.51

IBM STYLE
COMPUTER CASE

AN ATTRACTIVE STEEL CASE

WITH A HINGED LID FITS THE

POPULAR PC/XT COMPATIBLE

MOTHERBOARDS

• SWITCH CUT-OUT ON SIDE FOR PC/XT
STYLE POWER SUPPLY

• CUT-OUT FOR 8 EXPANSION SLOTS
. ALL HARDWARE INCLUDED

MONITOR STAND

TILTS AND SWIVELS

ONLY $12.95

IDM PRINTER CADLE

» DB25 TO

CENTRONICS <t* Q qp

• SHIELDED CABLE pU.OJ

$49.95

IBM COMPATIBLE KEYBOARDS

DKM-2000 $79.95 KB-5151 $99.95

rzrr—nj-n— i

l

# 1

• FULLY IBM COMPATIBLE

• LEDSTATUSINDICATORSFORCAPS&
NUMBER LOCK

• 83 KEY IDENTICAL TO IBM

POWER SUPPLY

NOW ONLY $89.95

► FOR IBM PC-XT COMPATIBLE
r 130 WATTS

- +5V @ 15A, +12V @ 4.2A
-5V <5> .5A, -12V @ .5A

150 WATT MODEL $99.95,

* ENHANCED IBM COMPATIBLE

* SEPARATE CURSOR & NUMERIC
KEYPADS

* CAPS LOCK & NUMBER LOCK
INDICATORS

. IMPROVED KEYBOARD LAYOUT

DISK DRIVES
TAND0N TM50-2

$69.95

VaHT DS/DD
IBM COMPATIBLE
EXTREMELY QUIET!

I TEAC FD-55B DS/DD $89.95

TEAC FD-55F DS/QUAD $39.95

TEACFD-55G DS/HD $154.95

QUME QT-142 DS/DD $69.95

MOUNTING HARDWARE $2.95

I AT/RAILS $4.95 j

1224 South Bascom Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128
800-538-5000 • 800^62*279 (CA) • (408) 995-5430 • FAX (408) 275-8415 • Telex 171-110

452 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

©COPYRIGHT 1985 JDR MICRODEVICES

Inquiry I 79

UNCLASSIFIED ADS

WANTED: Nonprofit project for abused children
seeks tax-deductible donation of IBM PC. Apple,
etc.. with peripherals to assist in training and record
keeping. David Eiffert. East Bay Youth Project, 15919
Hesperian Blvd.. San Lorenzo CA 94 580. (415)
276-1881.

WANTED: Cancer Research Society (CRS) Inc. seeks
donations of PCs and printers to develop a com-
puter center vital to our research programs. Will pay
shipping and provide tax receipt. CRS. POB 271.
Redlands. CA 92373-0081. (714) 794-5254.

WANTED: Apple or Commodore 64 hardware for
alternative grade school. Tax-deductible receipt
available. Juniper Sundance. Pleasant Ridge School.
321 East Decker St.. Viroqua. Wl 54665.

WANTED: Engineering school computer club that
works with Apple computers seeks correspondence
with U.S. clubs. Pedro Martins. P.O. Box 292. 29001
Vitoria ES, Brazil.

WANTED: Amiga users group would like to trade
member-developed and public-domain software,
lack Deckard. 3808 Laguna Dr.. Columbus, OH
43232.

WANTED: Society for psychical research needs
public-domain program to improve or to measure
psychic ability of humans. Donations of equipment
or information in magazines welcome. Instituto de
Pesquisas Bioenergeticas. Av. Borges de Medeiros
901. 90.000 Porto Alegre RS. Brazil.

WANTED: Gospel missionary organization needs tax-
deductible donation of several CP/M or MS-DOS
computers for word processing and record keeping.
Will pay shipping and provide receipts. World In-
digenous Missions, 1287 East Common St., New
Braunfels, TX 78131-0337, (512) 629-0863.

NEEDED: I need contact with Cromemco LISP users
to help me with problems. Jan Dings, Via delle
Capannelle. 5, 1-56015 Oratoio, Pisa, ltaiy.

WANTED: Technical information and schematics of
the PCC 2000 hardware for S-100 evolution. Will pay
postage. Jean-Claude Gryparis. 5 Rue d'Anjou.
59700 Marcq en Baroeul. France.

WANTED: Sinclair QL user would like to exchange in-
formation, ideas, advice, and public-domain or user-
written programs with other QL users. Arno
'fljominen. SF-93140 Kipina. Finland.

WANTED: Exchange with Computhink Eagle 32
(68000) computer users. I need documentation,
schematics, and public-domain software. I am try-
ing to install CP/M-68K: will provide a BIOS. Jeff
Shaw, POB 32900, San Jose, CA 95152, (408)
258-4059.

WANTED: Interfacing toS-IOO IEEE-696 Microcomputers '
(Sol Libes and Mark Garetz, 1981) to buy or bor-
row; also, documentation of Micromation disk con-
troller. Godbout Econoram VI11A. and Percom I/O
boards. Fred Ordway. 2901 Telestar Court, Falls
Church. VA 22042. (703) 560-3292.

WANTED: Schematic drawings and documentation
for the WD-900 Pascal MicroEngine single-board
computer by Western Digital. R. Tim Coslet. 12 35
Wildwood Ave. #200. Sunnyvale. CA 94089-2714.

WANTED: Correspondence with persons using P-LISP
on Apple II computers to exchange ideas, program-
ming tips, techniques, and experiences. David
Riippa. 6605 West 138th Ave. Holland. Ml 49423.

FOR SALE: Zenith Z-100 microcomputer system with
198K. two DS/DD drives, and more. Has mono-
chrome monitor, but has color capability. $2 500.
Midshipman loe Steffan. 35th Company. U.S. Naval
Academy. Annapolis. MD 21412, (301) 267-5001.

WANTED: Copy of service manual o r schematics for
the Tava PC motherboard (the Tava board, not the
Faraday motherboard). Will pay reasonable fee.
Write first. Daniel G. Krause. Box 8521. Virginia
Beach. VA 23450.

FOR SALE: Comprint 912 parallel printer, uses elec-
trostatic paper: $100; 6 rolls 8'/2-inch paper for Com-
print: $40; Apple II parallel-interface card for Com-
print: $ 50. $ 1 7 5 takes all. You pay shipping. Gordon
Nelson, 12005 Millstream Dr.. Bowie. MD 20715.
(301) 464-0732.

FOR SALE: IBM System/34 5340-E34 with 128K CPU.
three 52 51 VDU terminals, 52 56 matrix prater, and
521 1 line printer. Will sell as package Armco Pacific
Ltd., #31-01 OCBC Centre, Chulia St.. Singapore
0104, Telex: RS 35215 (ARMPAC).

FOR SALE: 'I\vo new Intertec Data Systems/Compu-
star Model 30 video-processing units. Any reason-
able offer accepted. William R. Bartmon. Bartmon.
Shapiro and Associates Inc.. 660 Madison Ave. New
York, NY 10021. (212) 888-9380.

FOR SALE: SYM-1 single-board computer. Beta 32 K
memory board. FDC disk controller, disk drive with
power supply, manuals, and books: $3 50. Soroq
IO-120 terminal with Star 300-bps modem: $275.
Steve Shoyer. 1480 Gunpowder Rd., Rydal. PA
19046. (215) 576-0335.

FOR SALE OR TRADE: Osborne I with extra 12-inch
Zenith monitor, two disk drives, 5-inch black-and-
white monitor built in. and more. Good condition.
Buyer pays shipping. $ 1 500, best offer, or trade for
512 K Macintosh. Scott Sitra. 3403 Southill Circle,
Austin, TX 78703, (512) 450-1083.

FOR SALE: Collection of Compute*, from My 1980 to
lune 1984. Good condition. Best offer. Tim Bowker.
525 Lohnes Dr.. Fairborn. OH 4 5324.

FOR SALE: 80-megabyte Okidata 3300 Winchester
drive and C3-B Ohio Scientific computer, plus SMD
controller for S-l 00s or PCs, Scientific Atlanta rack.
C3-OEM computer, and boards. Four 8-inch DS/DD
disk drives. Best offer. Phillip Woellhof. 20 Shady
Hill. Fairfield. CT 06430. (203) 2 54-1659.

FOR SALE: Olivetti M20 with I60K. 12-inch integral
monitor, dual drives, and more. Best offer over $900.
John Love. 2 508 Teakwood Lane, Piano. TX 75075,
(214) 867-0962. evenings.

FOR SALE: Apple Super Serial card for Apple II
series, Applemouse card, manuals, and more. $1 50.
Ed Cundy, Lyme Rd„ Hanover, NH 03755, (603)
643-5004.

FOR SALE: DEC Rainbow 1 00B, 2 56K, two 400K disk
drives, black-and-white monitor, keyboard, color
graphics installed, and documentation. $1800. lim
Weston, 297 Bartlett St., Bridgeport, CT 06606, (203)
374-3155.

FOR SALE: BYTE, issue I to August 1980. Mint con-
dition. Best offer. Tseng, 67-05 Austin St.. Forest
Hills, NY 1137 5.

NEEDED: Commodore 128 users to start group.
David Haynes. 17 Silo Square, Lewisburg, WV 24901.

FOR TRADE: Apple lie with disk drive wanted. Will
trade Adam computer with 80KRAM, joystick. Atari
2600 module, keyboard, printer, and more. Tom
Vinson. 3705 Buena Creek Rd., Vista, CA 92083.

FOR SALE: The first 10 years of BYTE. Excellent con-
dition. Best offer over $500 takes all. I pay shipping.
Harold Wood, 2002 Rookwood Rd„ Silver Spring,
MD 20910. (301) 589-4171.

FOR SALE: Zenith Z-100. 192K. one 48-tpi DS/DD, one
96-tpi DS/DD. one 8-inch DS/DD, one Gemini-lOX,
ZVM-133 color monitor, and more. Best offer. Jim
Odom. 8020 24th St.. Vero Beach. FL 32960, (305)
562-6379.

FOR SALE: Taxan 440 ultra-high resolution (720 by
400) color monitor for the IBM PC: $495; Persyst
BoB board: $395; Okidata 92: $295. John Birck. 4 58
East 600 N. Orem. UT 84057. (801) 224-4809.

WANTED: Computer science major seeks corre-
spondence about Commodore, Apple He, or IBM.
Johnathan lones, 1426 St. Marks Ave., Apt. I,
Brooklyn. NY 11233. (718) 773-5983.

FOR SALE: 20-megabyte Bernoulli Box cartridge disk
system: $2750. I will install in San Francisco Bay
area. Stephen Prosper, 3 5 Walter St., Apt. 2. San
Francisco. CA 94114, (415) 558-9032.

UNCLASSIFIED ADS MUST be noncommercial from
readers who have computer equipment to buy, sell, or trade
on a onetime basis. All requests for donated computer
equipment must be from nonprofit organizations. Programs
to be exchanged must be written by the individual or be
in the public domain. Ads must be typed double-spaced,
contain 50 words or less, and include full name and ad-
dress. This is a free service: ads are printed as space per-
mits. BYTE reserves the right to refect any unclassified
ad that does not meet these criteria. When you submit
your ad (BYTE. Unclassified Ads. POB 372. Hancock.
NH 03449). allow at least four months for it to appear.

FOR SALE: Cromemco CS-3 with 10-megabyte hard
disk and 2 56K RAM, plus various S-100 memory
and interface boards. Persci and Wangco disk drives,
and more, all with manuals. Make offer. Larry Yori.
1275 Kleppe Lane #14. Sparks, NV 89431. (702)
358-0937.

WANTED: TeleVideo TPC I 8-bit portable microcom-
puter. Marlow Marchant. Brigham Young University.
230 SNLB. Provo, UT 84602. (801) 378-6489.

WANTED: Semionics REM board, also any firmware,
public-domain software, manuals, and documenta-
tion. Lewis A. Stone. 114 South 170th St.. Seattle.
WA 98148.

FOR SALE: DEC PDP-1 1-compatible Heathkit H-l ) A
(LS1-I1/2), KEV-ll coprocessor 64K memory. 8-inch
dual drive, Heath/Zenith H-9 and H-29 terminals.
Diablo 630 printer, paper tape punch/reader, and
more. Complete documentation. Asking $6000. G.
Brewer. 5 Bataan Ave.. Eatontown. NJ 07724. (201)
389-1720.

FOR SALE: Actrix computer, two SS/DD disk drives,
monitor, modem, and dot-matrix printer all built into
one case. Detachable keyboard. Includes tractor
feed, carrying case, and more. $1295. Charlotte
Courey. 505 Ogemaw. Oscoda. Ml 48750.

FOR SALE: Zenith Z-100 All-in-One computer with
two DS/DD disk drives. I28K RAM. 8- and 16-bit
capable. $2700 or make offer. Roy Pieczulewski.
4874 South U.S. 23. Greenbush, Ml 48738.

FOR SALE: Zenith Z-l 50-52 IBM-compatible with two
disk drives (360K) with 320K RAM and 2.0 ROMs.
Five expansion slots, power supply, and manuals.
$1750 includes shipping. Bob Small 354 Teakwood
Dr., Satsuma, AL 36572, (205) 675-9742.

FOR SALE: Epson HX-20 notebook computer with
built-in microcassette. built-in microprinter. LCD
screen, 16K RAM, external cassette cables, books,
and manuals. Excellent condition. $2 50 or best
offer. Paul J. Polillo, 1003 North Broad. Galesburg.
1L 61401. (309) 343-6223.

FOR SALE: Altos 586. l /2-megabyte memory, 30-
megabyte hard-disk drive. 1 -megabyte floppy drive.
Altos II terminal, and more. $8500. John Shoemaker.
860 North Lafayette. Mesa. AZ 85201. (602)
834-1665.

FOR SALE: Axiom GP-100 Tl II dot-matrix printer with
direct-connect interface to the TI-99/4A. Other in-
terfaces available for different computers. Speech
synthesizer for Tl. Like new. Shawn Buterbaugh, R.D.
2. Box 188. Clymer. PA 15728.

WANTED: Computer enthusiasts of any type, from all
over the globe, with intent of communication and
starting a club. John Cogley Jr., 550 Old Clairton Rd.,
Pittsburgh. PA 152 36.

FOR SALE: Tandy Model 16. 68000. 2 56K, two disk
drives, graphics board, Daisy Wheel 11 printer, and
more. $3 500. Donald A. Kadunc. 5642 Whitecraigs
Court. Dublin. OH 43017. (614) 764-4789, evenings.

FOR SALE: Digital computer: PDP-11/23. 16-bit pro-
cessor, multifunction board with 16K. two serial
lines. 32 K memory. RX01 controller, and floppy-disk
drive. $1600 or best offer. Also. CIP and Cll 8P OSI
computers: $350. Arnetha Haynes, Box 173. Green-
ville. NH 03048, (603) 878-3352, evenings.

FOR SALE: Perkin-Elmer Fox-1 100 computer terminal.
Excellent for accessing databases and computer
programming. $2 50. John Echevarrieta, 2116 84th
St.. Brooklyn, NY 11214, (718) 331-6496.

FOR SALE: Kilobaud Microcomputing through June 1982.
Best offer. D. Bahr. Bahr Technologies. 1842 Hoff-
man St.. Madison. WI 53704, (608) 244-0500.

TRADE: IBM PC and Commodore 64 public-domain
programs. Please send a list of what you have and
what you want. SASE appreciated. Also have elec-
tronic components to trade for public-domain disks.
Timothy Mcllwee, 37W168 Hilly Lane. Dundee. IL
60118.

FOR SALE: Ohio Scientific C3-A mainframe computer.
Texas Instruments 810 dot-matrix high-speed printer,
and Intertec Data Systems terminal. Sherry Maturin.
(318) 367-3232. days.

FOR SALE: TRS-80 Model III. 48K RAM. two disk
drives. RS-232C board, modem, cassette recorder,
miscellaneous computer books and magazines,
manuals, and more. $1200 or offer. Kevin Gregg.
4310 15th St. NW, Washington. DC 20011. (202)
726-4519. ■

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 453

BOMB

BYTE's Ongoing Monitor Box

ARTICLED PAGE ARTICLE AUTHOR(S)

1 9 Microbytes staff

2 37 395 What's New staff

3 44 Ask BYTE Garcia

4 57 Book Reviews Shearer.

Salahi.

Norman.

Barden

5 84 Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar: Build an

Audioand-Video Multiplexer Ciarcia

6 102 Programming Project: A S1MPL

Compiler. Part 3: Extensions Amsterdam

7 116 Introduction to the Amiga

ROM Kernel Mical

8 135 Visual Programming Levien

9 149 Programming Insight:

Molecules in Color '. . Farrell

10 157 Programming Insight: Badfile:

CP/M System Programming in C ... Baker

11 169 Computer Science Considerations . . Vose.

Williams

ARTICLED

12

175

13

189

14

201

15

221

16

231

17

241

18

253

19

262

20

273

21

281

22

291

23

317

24

321

25

331

26

363

PAGE ARTICLE

AUTHOR(S)

Processing Strings in SNOBOL4 . .Cimpel
Interpretation of Natural Language . Pollack.

Waltz

Typesetting Problem Scripts MacKay

Poetry Processing Newman

The Literary Detective lankard

Keyboard Efficiency Olson. Jasinski

The Motorola VME/10 Robinson

MacCharlie " Crockett

Lattice's 8086/8088 C Compiler .... Woolston

Turbo Pascal 3.0 Bridger

Computing at Chaos Manor:

Communicating Pournelle

BYTE Japan:

Highlights of ~l\vo Shows Raike

BYTE U.K.: Tripos-

The Roots of AmigaDOS Pountain

According to Webster: Programming

Tools and the Atari 5 20ST Webster

Best of BIX. staff

BOMB Results

NOVEMBER REMEMBRANCES

Steve Ciarcia's 'The World s Smallest 1 200-bps Modem" wins. According
to Webster: "Memories" was next. Third is lerry Pournelle's "Old Favorites
and New Ones" followed by Bruce Webster's "Extending Turbo Pascal.''
Mark Bridger and Mark Coresky will split $100 for "High-Resolution
Printer Graphics." Sixth goes to Phillip Robinson's "The Amiga's Custom
Graphics Chips." and Stefan Demetrescu wins $50 for "Moving Pictures."

IBM ISSUE SPECIALTIES

Stephen R. Fried's comparison entitled The 8087/80287 Performance
Curve" placed first in "Inside the IBM PCs"' (Fall 1985). He wins $100.
In second place, and the winner of $50. is Paul Dunphy. who wrote "IBM
PC Interrupt Service Routines." Marcus Kolod's "IBM PC Disk Performance
and the Interleave Factor" came in third. Staffer Mark Dahmkes "IBM
Compatibility Issues" deserves mention. Congratulations to all.

BYTE ADVERTISING SALES STAFF:

Dennis J. Riley, Advertising Sales Manager, 70 Main Street,

Peterborough, NH 03458, tel.

(603) 924-9281

NEW ENGLAND

SOUTHEAST

SOUTH PACIFIC

WEST COAST SURPLUS

ME. NH. VT. MA. Rl.

NC SC GA. FL. AL. TN

SOUTHERN CA. AZ. NM. LAS VEGAS

AND RETAIL ACCOUNTS

EASTERN CANADA

Maggie M. Dorvee (404) 252-0626

lack Anderson (7141 55 7-6292

Tom Harvey (805) 964-8577

Paul McPherson !r. 16 171 262-1 160

McGraw-Hill Publications

McGraw-Hill Publications

3463 State Street-Suite 256

McGraw-Hill Publications

4170 Ashford-Dunwoody Road-

3001 Red Hill Ave.

Santa Barbara. CA 93105

575 Boylston Street

Suite 420

Building #1 -Suite 222

The Buyer's Mart

Boston, MA 02116

Atlanta, GA 30319

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Karen Burgess (603) 924-9281
BYTE Publications

ATLANTIC

MIDWEST

Karerf Niles (2 1 3) 480-5243. 487-1160

NY. NYC. CT. N| (NORTH)

IL. MO. KS. IA. ND, SD MN. Wl, NB. IN

McGraw-Hill Publications

70 Main Street

Leah C. Rabinowit2 (212) 512-2096

Bob Denmead (3121 751-3740

33 33 Wilshire Boulevard #407

Peterborough. NH 034 58

McGraw-Hill Publications

McGraw-Hill Publications

Los Angeles. CA 90010

1221 Avenue of the Americas—

Blair Building

BYTE BITS (2x3)

39th Floor

645 North Michigan Ave.
Chicago. IL 60611

NORTH PACIFIC

Dan Harper (603) 924-6830

New York. NY 10020

HI. WA, OR. ID. MT, NORTHERN CA.

BYTE Publications

NV (except LAS VEGAS). W. CANADA

70 Main Street

Dick McGurk (2031 968-7111

GREAT LAKES. OHIO REGION

David lern (415) 362-4600

Peterborough, NH 034 58

McGraw-Hill Publications

Ml. OH. PA (ALLEGHENY). KY.

McGraw-Hill Publications

Building A-3rd Floor

ONTARIO. CANADA

425 Battery Street

Post Card Mailings
National

Bradley Browne {6031 924-6166

777 Long Ridge Road
Stamford. CT 06902

Mike Kisseberth (3131 352-9760
McGraw-Hill Publications

San Francisco. CA 94 1 1 1

4000 Town Center— Suite 770

Bill McAfee (415) 964-0624

BYTE Publications

EAST

Southfield. Ml 48075

McGraw-Hill Publications

70 Main Street

PA (EAST). N! {SOUTH],

1000 Elwell Court-Suite 225

Peterborough. NH 034 58

MD. VA. W.VA. DE. D.C

SOUTHWEST. ROCKY MOUNTAIN

Palo Alto. C A 94303

Daniel Ferro (215) 496-3833

UT, CO. WY, OK, TX. AR. MS, LA

McGraw-Hill Publications

Kevin Harold (2141 458-2400

Three Parkway

McGraw-Hill Publications

Philadelphia. PA 19102

Prestonwood Tower— Suite 907
5151 Beltline
Dallas, TX 75240

International Advertising Sales Representatives:

Mr. Hans Csokor

Mrs. Maria Sarmiento

Mr. Arthur Scheffer

Seavex Ltd.

Publimedia

Pedro Teixeira 8. Off. 320

McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.

503 Wilson House

Reisnerstrasse 61

Iberia Mart 1

34 Dover St.

19-27 Wyndham St.

A-1037 Vienna, Austria

Madrid 4. Spain

London W IX 3RA

Central, Hong Kong

222 75 76 84

1 45 52 891

England 01 493 14 51

Tel: 5-260149

Telex: 60904 SEVEX HX

Mrs. Gurit Gepner

Mr. Andrew Karnlg

Mr. Savio Pesavento

McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.

Andrew Karnig & Associates

McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.

Hiro Morita

PO Box 2 1 56

Finnbodavagen

Via Flavio Baracchini 1

McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.

Bat Yam, 5912 1 Israel

S-l 3 1 31 Nacka, Sweden

20123 Milan, Italy

Overseas Corp.

3 866 561 321 39

8-44 0005

02 86 90 617

Room 1528

Mr. Fritz Krusebecker

Mr. Alain Faure

Seavex Ltd.

Kasumigaseki Bidg.
3-2-5 Kasumigaseki.
Chiyoda-Ku
Tokyo 100. lapan
3 581 981 1

McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.

McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.

400 Orchard Road. #10-01

Liebigstrasse 19

i 7 rue Georges Bizet

Singapore 0923

D-6000 Frankfurt/Main 1

F 75116 Paris

Republic of Singapore

West Germany

France

Tel: 734-9790

69 72 0! 81

(1| 47-20-33-42

Telex: RS35539 SEAVEX

454 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

READER SERVICE

Inquiry No.

Page No.

367 1ST PLACE COMP. SYSTEMS .... 412

2 AST. RESEARCH 19

3 AST. RESEARCH 19

4 AB COMPUTERS 68

5 ADAX INC 342

6 ADDISON-WESLEY PUB. CO. 316

8 ADV. DIGITAL CORP. 36

9 ADV. DIGITAL CORP. 36

10 ADV. INTELLIGENCE TECHN. ... 416
377 ADV. MICROCOMPUTER SYS.. .446

11 ADVANCED COMP. PROD . 438, 439

12 ALBERTO CULVER CO 63

13 ALF PRODUCTS. INC 428

14 ALLOY COMPUTER PROD 107

15 ALLOY COMPUTER PROD 330

386 ALSYS INC 397

16 AM'86 338

18 AMER. DIVERSIFIED CPTL. 360, 361

* AMERICAN MICROSYSTEMS 446

19 AMERICAN MICRO TECHNOLOGY 62

20 AMERICAN SMALL BUSN.COMP. 333

21 AMPRO COMPUTERS INC 336

22 AMPRO COMPUTERS INC 336

23 APPARAT INC 426

25 APROTEK 420

26 APROTEK 293

27 APROTEK 293

28 ARITY CORPORATION 301

385 ARTEK CORP. 47

* AT&T INTERNATIONAL 391

29 ATRON CORP. 277

30 ATRONICS . .58

31 AVOCET 141

32 B&B ELECTRONICS 322

* B&C MICROSYSTEMS 422

' B&C MICROSYSTEMS 422

33 BASF SYSTEMS 271

35 BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC 23

36 BITTNER ELECTRONICS 424

450 BIX 246, 247

37 BLAISE COMPUTING INC 143

38 BLAISE COMPUTING INC 143

374 BONDWELL HOLDING LTD 399

40 BORLAND INTL Cll. 1

41 BORLAND INTL Cll, 1

42 BORLAND INTL 39

43 BORLAND INTL 39

44 BORLAND INTL 41

45 BORLAND INTL 41

46 BORLAND INTL 43

47 BORLAND INTL 43

48 BP MICROSYSTEMS 446

49 BUKOWSKI ROBOTICS 426

50 BUSINESS TOOLS INC 77

* BYTE BACK ISSUES 356

* BYTE SUBSCRIBER MESSAGE ... 182
' BYTE SUBSCRIBER SERVICE ... 418

51 BYTE CONNECTION. THE 414

52 BYTEK COMP. SYS CORP. 74

* C WARE/DESMET C 298

53 C.J, COMPUTERS 218

54 C.I. COMPUTERS -218

* CALIFORNIA DIGITAL 434, 435

55 CANDELARIA WORKS 412

56 CAPITAL EOUIPMENT CORP 48

384 CAT BENELUX 299

58 CAUZIN SYSTEMS 154, 155

59 CENTROID CORP 420

61 CHALCEDONY SOFTWARE 32

62 CHALCEDONY SOFTWARE 32

63 CHORUS DATA SYSTEMS 393

64 CHRONOTRON .....422

66 CLASSIC TECHNOLOGY 156

67 CLASSIC TECHNOLOGY 156

68 CLEVELAND CODONICS INC . . . 228

69 CMS ... 174

70 CMS 174

Inquiry No.

Page No.

71 COEFFICIENT SYS. CORP 123

72 COGITATE 420

73 COGITATE 426

• COMMODORE BUSN. MACH 153

• COMPAO COMPUTER CORP 171

75 COMPETITIVE EDGE 342

• COMPUADD CORP. INSERT 320 A-B

77 COMPUDATA TRANSLATORS INC. 436
345 COMPUPRO/VIASYN CORP. 351

78 COMPUSAVE 417

79 COMPUSERVE 239

80 COMPUTER AFFAIRS INC 320

81 COMPUTER AID 422

307 COMPUTER ASSOC MICRO DIV. 365

' COMPUTER CHRONICLES 354

• COMPUTER CONTINUUM ...... 420

379 COMPUTER FAIRE. INC 367

83 COMPUTER FRIENDS 223

84 COMPUTER INNOVATIONS 49

85 COMPUTER INNOVATIONS 295

86 COMPUTER MAIL ORDER . . 348, 349

87 COMPUTER MART 323

88 COMPUTER PARTS MART 426

89 COMPUTER SURPLUS STORE . . . 446

90 COMPUTER WAREHOUSE 233

91 COMPUTER WAREHOUSE 233

92 COMPUTERBANC 437

95 COMPUTRADE 344

96 CONCORD TECHNOLOGY CO. . . 340

97 CONROY-LAPOINTE 114, 115

9 8 CONROY-LAPOINTE 114, 115

99 CONROY-LAPOINTE 114, 115

101 CORVUS SYS INC 129-134

105 CRAIG DATA CABLE 422

106 CUESTA SYSTEMS 18

107 CUSTOM COMP. TECH 414

108 CUSTOM COMP. TECH 415

109 CYMA CORPORATION 389

110 CYMA CORPORATION 389

HID AND D DISCOUNT . 419

112 DATA EXCHANGE 424

1 13 DATA EXCHANGE 436

114 DATA SPEC 188

115 DATA SPEC 188

116 DATA TRANSLATION INC, ...... 203

117 DIGITAL PRODUCTS INC 144

118 DIGITAL RESEARCH INC 202

1 19 DISKETTE CONNECTION 355

120 DISKS PLUS 340

121 DISKWORLD'. INC 432. 433

123 DIVERSIFIED GROUP. THE . 430, 431

124 DOKAY COMP. PROD. INC 423

125 EARTH COMPUTERS 160

126 EARTH COMPUTERS 160

127 ECOSOFT 200

128 EDUCATIONAL MICROCOMP. SYS. 424

129 ELEXOR INC 428

130 ELLIS COMPUTING INC 181

131 ENERTRONICS RESEARCH 250

316 ENGARDE 112

132 ESSENTIAL SOFTWARE INC 208

134 EVEREX SYSTEMS 20,21

135 EVEREX SYSTEMS 20, 21

136 EXCELTEC INDUSTRIES. INC. . . 446
373 FACIT AB 297

137 FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING 335

138 FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING 335

139 FORTRON, INC 421

Inquiry No.

Page No.

140 FORTRON, INC 421

141 FOX AND GELLER. INC 142

142 FOX SOFTWARE, INC 54

258 FUTURE COMPUTING/M-G IS.. . . 121

143 GENERAL COMPUTER 31

144 GENERAL MICRO SYSTEMS 446

381 GENEST TECH 355

382 GENEST TECH 355

145 GENOA SYSTEMS CORP. 313

146 GOLD HILL COMPUTERS 168

147 GOLDEN BOW SYSTEMS 436

148 GOLDEN BOW SYSTEMS 428

389 GRAFPOINT 436

149 GTEK INC 230

150 H.E.I. INC 245

151 HARMONY VIDEO & COMP. .... 328

152 HAYES EMPLOYMENT 387

153 HEATH COMPANY 286

154 HERCULES COMPUTER TECH. . . 127

155 HERCULES COMPUTER TECH. . . 272

156 HERSEY MICRO CONSULTING . . 428

* HEWLETT-PACKARD 325

158 HEWLETT-PACKARD 327

375 HORN COMP INTL 312

159 HOUSTON INSTR./BAUSCH&LOMB 337

160 IBEX COMP. CORP 426

161 IBM - (ISG) SERVICES 139

162 IC. EXPRESS 422

163 INFORMATION SOFTWARE 373

164 INLAB INC 436

165 INOVION CORP. 4

166 INTECTRA INC 420

167 INTEGRAND 358

* INTERFACE TECH CORP. 197

170 IOMEGA 34. 35

171 ITT INFORMATION SYSTEMS ... 252

172 ITT INFORMATION SYSTEMS ... 252

173 IADE COMP PROD 444. 445

175 JAMECO ELECTRONICS . . . 440, 441

176 ]DR INSTRUMENTS 109

177 JDR MICRODEVICES 448, 449

178 JDR MICRODEVICES 450, 451

179 IDR MICRODEVICES 452

* IIM-PAK. 275

182 |VB ELECTRONICS 424

183 KADAK PRODUCTS LTD 74

366 KEA SYSTEMS 412

184 KEITHLEY DAC 426

185 KIMTRON CORP. 329

186 KYOCERA • 280

187 KYOCERA 280

188 LABORATORY MICROSYS 334

189 LATTICE. INC 238

190 LIFEBOAT ASSOC 211

191 LINTEK INC 422

390 LIVING SOFTWARE 311

192 LMW ENTERPRISES INC 70

194 LOGICAL DEVICES 318, 319

195 LOGICAL SYSTEMS INC 424

400 LOGICSOFT INSERT 32A-D

196 LOGITECH INC 259

197 LOGITECH INC 261

383 LOMAS DATA PRODUCTS 394

* LOTUS 401

198 LYBEN COMP SYS 18

199 LYCO COMPUTER 237

200 MACMILLAN SOFTWARE 22

201 MAIN STREET COMPUTER ... 72, 73

TO GET FURTHER information on the products advertised in BYTE, either
pick up your touch-tone telephone and use TIPS (if you are a subscriber),
or fill out the reader service card. Either way full instructions are pro-
vided following this reader service index which is provided as an addi-
tional service by the publisher, who assumes no liability for errors or
omissions. ""Correspond directly with company.

Inquiry No,

Page No.

202 MANX SOFTWARE SYS 25

203 MANZANA 128

204 MARK WILLIAMS CO. 59

205 MARK WILLIAMS CO 61

206 MARYMAC INDUSTRIES INC. ... 424

207 MASTER VOICE 161

208 MASTER VOICE 161

209 MASTERBYTE COMP. OF N.Y ... 338

210 MAXELL DATA PRODUCTS 7

211 MAYNARD ELECTRONICS 15

* MCGRAW-HILL BOOK CO . .352. 353

214 MCGRAW-HILL BOOKSTORE DIV 341

* MCGRAW-HILL CEC 385

215 MEGASOFT 420

216 MEGATEL COMPUTER TECH 76

217 MERRITT COMP. PRODUCTS 322

218 MICRO DATA BASE SYS 314

219 MICRO DESIGN INTL 163

220 MICRO MART. INC 64, 65

221 MICRO PRODUCTS 447

222 MICROGRAFX 17

' MICROMINT INC 404

224 MICROPHONICS TECHNOLOGY . 186

225 MICROPHONICS TECHNOLOGY . 187

226 MICROPROCESSORS UNLTD ... .412

227 MICROSHOP 418

* MICROSOFT CORP 12, 13

* MICROSOFT CORP 51

* MICROSOFT CORP 145-148

■ MICROSOFT CORP 379

* MICROSOFT PRESS 240

228 MICROWAY 151

229 MICROWAY 347

* MIX SOFTWARE 304

231 MYSTIC CANYON SOFTWARE ... 412

232 NANAO USA CORP. 243

233 NANAO USA CORP 243

234 NANTUCKET 45

235 NANTUCKET 45

238 NATL PUBLIC DOMAIN SFTW. . . 428

239 NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 260

240 NATIONAL MEMORY SYSTEMS. 204
380 NCR 205

* NEC HOME ELECTR. USA 306

241 NEC INFORMATION SYS Clll

* NEWSNET INC 16

244 NICOLET PARATRONICS 30

245 NORTH HILLS CORP 436

* NRI SCHOOLS ELECTR. DIV 369

246 ORCHID TECHNOLOGY 371

247 ORION INSTRUMENTS 375

248 PC. HORIZONS. INC 446

249 PACIFIC EXCHANGES 426

376 PANASONIC 55

250 PATHFINDER SOFTWARE. INC. . . 412

251 PC NETWORK. 79

252 PC NETWORK 80, 81

253 PCS LIMITED 210

254 PCS LIMITED 308, 309

255 PECAN 209

387 PENTON 60

256 PERSOFT INC 8

257 PERSOFT INC 8

259 PLUS DEVELOP CORP. 100, 101

261 PRICE-LINE COMPUTERS INC. . . 339

262 PRINCETON GRAPHIC SYS 125

263 PRINCETON GRAPHIC SYS 381

264 PRINTER ACCESSORIES DIRECT. .76

265 PRIORITY ONE .425

266 PRO CODE INTERNATIONAL . . . 162

267 PROGRAMMER'S SHOP 300

268 PROSOFT 290

269 PURPLE COMPUTING 424

* OUAID SOFTWARE LTD 258

270 QUA TECH. INC 422

271 QUA TECH. INC 422

272 QUA TECH. INC 428

FEBRUARY 1986 -BYTE 455

READER SERVICE

Inquiry No.

Page No.

273 QUA TECH. INC 428

274 QUALITY PRINTERS 426

275 OUELO INC 426

276 QUESTIONNAIRE SERVICE CO.. .412

277 OUICKSOFT 46

278 RADIO SHACK . . CIV

279 RADIO SHACK II

280 RAINBOW TECHNOLOGIES 446

281 RATIONAL SYSTEMS 172

282 RED RIVER TECHNOLOGY INC. ... 27

283 ROSE ELECTRONICS 424

284 S'NW ELECT & APPL 48

285 S-100 DIV. 696 CORP. 442. 443

286 S-100 DIV 696 CORP. 442, 443

287 SAB-LINK. INC 420

288 SAFEWARE 424

391 SBT CORPORATION 235

392 SBr CORPORATION 235

289 SCIENTIFIC ENGR. LABS 446

330 SCIENTIFIC SOLUTIONS 119

290 SCOTTSDALE SYSTEMS 417

291 SHAPE MAGNETRONICS 214

292 SILICON SPECIALTIES 75

293 SILICON SPECIALTIES 7 5

294 SOFTCRAFT. INC 279

295 SOFTCRAFT. INC ITXI 185

296 SOFTKLONE DISTRIBUTING .... 343

Inquiry No.

Page No.

* SOFTLINE CORP. 71

298 SOFTLOGIC SOLUTIONS INC 302

299 SOFTRONICS 420

300 SOFTWARE CHANNELS INC 357

301 SOFTWARE LINK. THE 345

302 SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS INC 164. 165

304 SOLUTION SYSTEMS 294

305 SOLUTION SYSTEMS 294

306 SOPHCO INC 219

* SOURCE TELECOMP CORP .... 199

309 SPECTRA FAX 159

310 SPECTRUM SOFTWARE 217

311 SPSS 207

312 STATSOFT 67

314 SUMMIT SOFFWARE TECHN. INC .113

315 SUNTRONICS CO. INC 413

317 SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT ASSOC. .24

318 SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT ASSOC 183

319 TANGENT TECHNOLOGIES 428

320 TATUNG 362

321 TATUNG 362

322 TAX BYTE. INC 26

323 TAXAN CORP.. 177

324 TAXAN CORP 177

325 TDT 52. 53

327 TEAC 220

328 TECH PC 137

Inquiry No.

Page No.

329 TECH PC 137

331 TEKTRONIX INC 377

378 THIRD PLANET WHOLESALERS . 328

332 TIGERTRONICS INC 428

* TINNEY ROBERT GRAPHICS. . . .429

333 TLM SYSTEMS INC 303

334 TLM SYSTEMS INC 305

335 TLM SYSTEMS INC 307

336 TOMINY INC 269

337 TOPAZ. INC 383

338 TOPAZ. INC 383

339 TOSHIBA AMERICA INC . . . 212, 213

340 TRANSEC SYSTEMS INC 270

260 TURBO SIX • 126

341 TURBOPOWER SOFTWARE 292

342 U.S. ROBOTICS 229

343 UNICORN ELECTRONICS 412

371 UNIVATION 403

344 VEN-TEL INC 28, 29

346 VICTOR TECHNOLOGIES 173

* VLM COMPUTER ELECTR 412

349 WALLING CO 436

350 WALONICK ASSOCIATES 144

351 WANG INSTITUTE 50

352 WAREHOUSE DATA PRODUCTS . . 69

353 WEDGE TECHNOLOGY INC 436

354 WESTERN COMPUTER 66

Inquiry No.

Page No.

355 WESTERN COMPUTER 66

356 WESTERN TELEMATIC 215

357 WESTERN TELEMATIC 215

358 WINTEK CORP .5

359 WINTEK CORP. 322

360 WOODCHUCK INDUSTRIES 420

361 WORLDWIDE ACCESS 427

362 WYSE TECHNOLOGY 359

363 Z-SOFT CORPORATION 56

364 ZEDCOR 267

365 ZEDCOR 267

* Correspond dir clly with company.

INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING SECTION

500 AMERICAN BUYING & EXPORT

SERVICES 240C

• BYTE. 240A

501 CASIO 240G

502 CITIZEN PRINTERS 240H

503 GREY MATTER 240F

504 MULTITECH INDUSTRIAL

CORP. 240D. 240E

No fomtUk inquiries, please.

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY!*

Use BYTE's Telephone Inquiry Processing System

Using TIPS can bring product information as much as 10 days earlier.

SEND FOR YOUR 1) If you are a new subscriber or have lost your LD. card, circle #1 on the Reader Service

SUBSCRIBER LD. CARD Card; attach mailer label. We will immediately send your personal TIPS subscriber card.

GET PREPARED

2) Write your Subscriber Number, as printed on your Subscriber ID. Card, in boxes in Step 5 below.
(Do not add O's to fill in blank boxes)

3) Write numbers for information desired in boxes in Step 7b below.
(Do not add O's to fill in blank boxes.)

CALL TIPS

4) Now, on a Tbuch-Tbne telephone dial: (413) 442-2668 and wait for voice commands.

ENTER YOUR
SUBSCRIBER AND
ISSUE NUMBERS

5) When TIPS says: "Enter Subscriber Number"

(Enter by pushing the numbers and symbols [# or * enclosed in the boxes] on telephone pad
ignoring blank boxes)

Enter DDDnnDDDS][l

6) When TIPS says "Enter magazine code & issue code"

Enter DD ffl El M ffl ffl

ENTER YOUR
INQUIRIES

7a) When TIPS says "Enter (next) Inquiry Number"

Enter one inquiry selection from below (ignore blank boxes)

b)

Repeat 7a as needed (maximum 17 inquiry numbers)

l.DDD

2. □ □ □ ffl QD

3. □ □ □ QD ffl

4. □ □ □ m QD

5. □ □ □ qd m

6.DDDI
7. □ □ □ QD ffl
8.DDD1S]
9. □ □ □ QD QD

10. D D D I
ll.DDDQDQB

12. □ □ □ QD m

13. □ □ □ QD OS

14.DDDS]

15. D D D

16. D D D

n. n n n

END SESSION

8) End session by entering 00IDOM

9) Hang up after hearing final message

If you are a subscriber and need assistance, call (603) 924-9281.

If you are not a subscriber fill out the subscription card found in this issue or, call BYTE Circulation 800-258-5485.
*Domestic and Canadian Subscribers Only!
456 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1986

GVTE

READER SERVICE

rtntl

Fill out this coupon carefully. PLEASE PRINT. Requests can-
not be honored unless the zip code is included. This card is
valid for 6 months from cover date.

Name

(Title).

FEBRUARY 1986
4126

.(Company).

I

23

.15

67

89

111

133

155

177

199

221 243

J

24

46

68

90

112

134

156

178

200

222 244

3

25

47

69

91

113

13 5

157

179

201

223 245

4

26

48

70

92

114

136

158

180

202

224 246

5

27

49

71

93

115

137

159

181

203

225 247

6

28

50

72

94

116

138

160

182

204

226 248

7

29

51

73

95

117

139

161

183

205

227 249

8

30

52

74

96

118

140

162

184

206

228 250

9

31

53

75

97

119

141

163

185

207

229 251

10

32

54

76

98

120

142

164

186

208

230 252

II

33

55

77

99

12)

143

165

187

209

231 253

12

34

56

78

100

122

144

166

188

210

232 254

13

35

57

79

101

123

145

167

189

211

233 255

14

36

58

80

102

124

146

168

190

212

234 256

15

37

59

81

103

125

147

169

191

213

235 257

16

38

60

82

104

126

148

170

192

214

236 258

17

39

61

83

105

127

149

171

193

215

237 259

18

40

62

84

106

128

150

172

194

216

238 260

19

41

63

85

107

129

151

173

195

217

239 261

20

42

64

86

108

130

152

174

196

218

240 262

21

43

65

87

109

131

153

175

197

219

241 263

22

44

66

88

110

132

154

176

198

220

242 264

Address

City.

Telephone

_State_

_Zip_

I purchased this copy by □ Subscription □ Newsstand, computer store or bookstore

265

287

309

266

288

310

267

289

311

268

290

312

269

291

313

270

292

314

271

293

315

272

294

316

273

295

317

274

296

318

275

297

319

276

298

3 30

277

299

321

278

300

322

279

301

323

280

302

524

281

303

325

282

304

326

283

305

327

284

306

328

285

307

329

286

308

330

331 353

332 354

333 355

334 356

335 357

336 358

337 359

338 360

339 361

340 362

341 363

342 364

343 365

344 366

345 i67

346 368

347 369

348 370

349 371

350 372

351 373

352 374

375

397

419

376

398

420

377

399

421

378

400

422

379

401

423

380

402

424

381

403

425

382

404

4 2 6

383 405

427

384

406

428

385

407

4 29

386

408

4 30

387

409

43.1

388

410

432

389

411

433

390

412

434

391

413

435

392

414

436

393

415

437

394

416

438

395

417

4 39

396

418 440

441 463 485

442 464 486

443 465 487

444 466 488

445 467 489
446468 490
447 469 491
4 4 8 4 70 4 9 2

449 471 493

450 472 494

451 473 495

452 474 496

453 475 497
•454 476 498
455 477 499
4 56 478 500

457 479 501

458 480 502

459 481 503

460 482 504

461 483 505

462 484 506

507

529

508 530

509 531

510 532

511

533

512

5 34

513

5 35

514

536

515

537

516 538

517

539

518

540

519

541

520 542

521

543

522

544

523

545

524

546

525

547

526 548

527 549

528 550

573 595

574 596

575 597

576 598

577 599

578 600

579 601

580 602

581 603

582 604

583 605

584 606

585 607

586 608

587 609

588 610

589 611

590 612

591 613

592 614

593 615

594 616

617

639

618 640

619

641

620 642

621

643

622

644

623

645

624

646

625 647

626 648

627

649

628 650

629

651

630 652

631

653

632

654

633 655

634

656

635 657

636658

637 659

638 660

661 683

662 684

663 685

664 686

665 687

666 688

667 689

668 690

669 691

670 692
67! 693

672 694

673 695

674 696

675 697

676 698

677 699

678 700

679 701

680 702

681 703

682 704

705

727

749

706 728 750

707

729

751

708 730

752

709

731

753

710 732

754

711

733

755

712

734

7 56

713

735

757

714

736

758

715 737 759

716

738 760

717

739

761

718

740 762

719

741

763

720

742

764

721

743

765

722

744

766

723

745

767

724 746 768

725 747 769

726 748 770

771 793

772 794

773 795

774 796

775 797

776 798

777 799

778 800

779 801

780 802

781 803

782 804

783 805

784 806

785 807

786 808

787 809

788 810

789 811

790 812

791 813

792 814

BYTE'S BOMB is your direct line
to the editor's desk. Each month, the two
top-rated authors receive bonuses based
on your evaluation First look at the list of
this month's articles and corresponding ar-
ticle numbers llocated on the page pre-
ceding the Reader Service list), then rate
each article you've read as Excellent. Good,
Fair, or Poor, based on your overall impres-
sion of the article, by circling the ap-
propriate number in each column below.
Your feedback helps us produce the best
possible magazine each month.

Article No.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

II

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

Excellent

1

5

9

13

17

21

25

29

33

37

41

45

49

53

57

61

65

69

73

77

81

85

89

93

97

2

6

10

14

18

22

26

30

34

38

42

46

54

58

62

66

70

74

78

82

86

90

94

Good

50

98

Fair

3

7

11

15

19

23

27

31

35

39

43

47

51

55

59

63

67

71

75

79

83

87

91

95

99

Poor

4

8

12

16

20

24

28

32

36

40

44

48

52

56

60

64

68

72

76

80

84

88

92

96

100

Article No.

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

101

105

109

113

117

121

125

129

133

137

141

153

157

161

Excellent

145

149

165

169

173

177

181

185

189

193

197

Good

102

106

110

114

118

122

126

130

134

138

142

146

150

154

158

162

166

170

174

178

182

186

190

194

198

Fair

103

107

111

115

119

123

127

131

135

139

143

147

151

155

159

163

167

171

175

179

183

187

191

195

199

Poor

104

108

112

116

120

124

128

132

136

140

144

148

152

156

160

164

168

172

176

180

184

188

192

196

200

EVTE

READER SERVICE

m

Fill out this coupon carefully. PLEASE PRINT. Requests can-
not be honored unless the zip code is included. This card is
valid for 6 months from cover date.

Name

(Title) _

.(Company).

Address

City_

Telephone

_State_

FEBRUARY 1986
4126

_Zip_

I purchased this copy by □ Subscription □ Newsstand, computer store, or bookstore

l 23

45

67

89

111

133

155

177

199

221

243

265

287

309

331

353

375

397

419

441 463 485 507 529

551

573 595 617 639

661 683 705 727 749

771 793

2 24

46

68

90

112

34

156

178

200

222

244

266

288

310

332

354

376

398

420

442 464 486 508 530

552

574 596 618 640

662 684 706 728 750

772 794

3 2 5

47

69

91

113

135

157

179

201

223

245

267

289

311

333

355

377

399

421

443 465 487

509 531

553

575 597 619 641

663 685 707 729 751

773 795

4 26

48

70

92

114

136

158

180

202

224

246

268

290

312

334

356

378

400

422

444 466 488

510 532

554

576 598 620 642

664 686 708 730 752

774 796

5 27

49

71

93

115

137

159

181

203

225

247

269

291

313

335

357

379

401

423

445 467 489

511 533

555

577 599 621 643

665 687 709 731 753

775 797

6 28

50

72

94

116

138

160

182

204

226 248

2 70

292

314

336

358

380

402

424

446 468 490

512 534

5 56

578 600 622 644

666 688 710 732 754

776 798

7 29

51

73

95

117

139

161

183

205

227

249

271

293

315

337

359

381

403

425

447 469 491

513 535

557

579 601 623 645

667 689 711 733 755

777 799

8 30

52

74

<>6

118

140

162

184

206

228

2 50

272

294

316

338

360

382

404

426

448 470 492

514 536

558

580 602 624 646

668 690 v 12 734 756

778 800

9 3 1

53

75

97

119

141

163

185

207

229

251

273

295

317

339

361

383

405

427

449 471 493

515 537

559

581 603 625 647

669 691 713 735 757

779 801

10 32

54

76

98

120

142

164

186

208

230

252

274

296

318

340

362

384

406

428

450 472 494

516 538

560 582 604 626 648

670692 714 736 758

780 802

| II 33

55

77

gq

12

143

165

187

209

231

253

275

297

3i9

341

363

385

407

429

451 473 495

517 539

561

583 605 627 649

671 693 715 737 759

781 803

12 34

56

78

!00

122

44

166

188

210

232

254

276

298

33t

342

364

386

408

430

452 474 496

518 540

562

584 606 628 650

672 694 716 738 760

782 804

13 35

57

79

101

123

145

167

189

211

213

255

277

299

321

343

365

387

409

431

453 475 497

519 541

563

585 607 629 651

673 695 717 739 761

783 805

14 36

58

80

102

124

146

168

190

212

234

256

278

300

322

344

366

388

410

432

454 476 498

520 542

564

586 608 630 652

674 696 718 740 762

784 806

15 37

59

81

103

125

147

169

191

213

235

257

2 79

301

323

345

367

389

411

433

455 477 499

521 543

565

587 609 631 653

675 697 719 741 763

785 807

16 38

60

82

104

126

148

170

192

214

236

258

280 302

324

346

368 390

412

434

4 56 478 500

522 544

566

588 610 632 654

676 698 720 742 764

786 808

1 17 V)

61

83

105

127

149

171

193

215

237

2 59

281

303

325

347

369

391

413

435

457 479 501

523 545

567

589 611 633 655

677 699 721 743 765

787 809

18 40 62

84

106

128

150

172

194

216

238

260 282

304

326

348

370

392

414

436

458 480 502

524 546

568

590 612 634 656

678 700 722 744 766

788 810

19 41

63

85

107

129

151

173

195

217

239

261

283

305

327

349

371

393

415

437

459 481 503

525 547

569

591 613 635 657

679 701 723 745 767

789 811

20 42

64

86

108

130

152

174

196

218

240 262

284

306

328

350

372

394

416

438

460 482 504

526 548

570

592 614 636658

680 702 724 746 768

790 812

21 43

65

87

109

131

153

175

197

219

241

263

285

307

329

351

373

395

417

439

461 483 505

527 549

571

593 615 637 659

681 703 725 747 769

791 813

22 44

66

88

110

132

154

176

198

220

242

264

286

308

3 30

352

374

396

418

440

462 484 506 528 550

572

594 616 638 660

682 704 726 748 770

792 814

To get further information on the products advertised in BYTE, fill out the reader service card with your name and address. Then circle
the appropriate numbers for the advertisers you select from the list. Add a first-class stamp to the card, then drop it in the mail. Not
only do you gain information, but our advertisers are encouraged to use the marketplace provided by BYTE. This helps us bring you
a bigger BYTE. The index is provided as an additional service by the publisher, who assumes no liability for errors or omissions.

PLACE

POSTAGE

HERE

BOTE

READER SERVICE

PO BOX 298

DALTON, MA 01227-0298

USA

PLACE

POSTAGE

HERE

EVTE

READER SERVICE
PO BOX 298
DALTON, MA 01227-0298
USA

BVTEb

SUBSCRIPTIONS

4126

For a subscription to BYTE, please complete this card.

Name

USA

Canada
Mexico

□ I year

D$2I

□ $23

□ 2 years

□ $38

□ $42

□ 3 years

□ $55

□ $61

Address
City

State.

Zip_

Country.

Card No..

Expiration date„

Four digits above name— Master Charge only

Signature Date.

□ $69. Europe (air delivery) payment enclosed

□ $37 Worldwide (surface mail) payment
enclosed

(Air mail rates available upon request)

Please remit in US funds drawn on a
US bank. Thank you.

□ Check enclosed (Bonus: |North American only)

one EXTRA issue— receive 13 issues for the
___ ___^_ price of 12)

□ S □ H

□ Bill me (North America only)

Please allow eight weeks for processing. Thank you.

BYTEs

SUBSCRIPTIONS

For a subscription to BYTE, please complete this card.

Name

4126

USA

Canada
Mexico

□ I year

□ $21

□ $23

□ 2 years

□ $38

□ $42

□ 3 years

□ $55

□ $61

Address

City

State.

Zip_

Country.

Card No..

Expiration date_

Four digits above name— Master Charge only

Signature Date.

Please allow eight weeks for processing. Thank you.

D $69. Europe (air delivery) payment enclosed

□ $37 Worldwide (surface mail) payment
enclosed

(Air mail rates available upon request)

Please remit in US funds drawn on a
US bank. Thank you.

□ Check enclosed (Bonus: | North American only

one EXTRA issue— receive 13 issues for the
^^^ price of 12

d S d €8&

D Bill me (North America only)

Don't Miss An Issue!

Have BYTE
delivered to
your door.

Each month BYTE will bring you the
latest in microcomputer technology.

DISCOVER and IMPLEMENT new
ideas. Don't miss the original informa-
tion presented in the pages of BYTE.

With BYTE you'll always be among
the first to know about the important
breakthroughs, worthwhile new
equipment, and innovative projects
in the world of computing.

CHALLENGE US to deliver the
very best idea in microcomputers
and advanced technology to you.
Return the attached card today!

Subscribe to BYTE-the world's
leading computer magazine.

PLACE

POSTAGE

HERE

GVTE

SUBSCRIPTIONS

PO Box 597

Martinsville, NJ 08836-0597

USA

PLACE

POSTAGE

HERE

BYTE

SUBSCRIPTIONS
PO Box 597

Martinsville, NJ 08836-0597
USA

NEC PRINTERS.

THEYONIYSTOPWHEN

YOUWANTTHEMTO.

1 Color Pinwriter CP2
dot matrix printer.

Pinwriter P3

dot matrix printer.

NEC printers are incredibly reliable.

In fact, with normal use, an NEC printer can run an average of 5 years before it needs a
repair. And chances are, that repair will take only about 15 minutes.

To become that reliable, an NEC printer has to go through some of the most demanding
tests in the industry.

First, we test every single part before it goes into the printer. Then we test the printer itself.
Nothing is forgotten. Nothing is left to chance.

But reliability is only part of the story. There's much more. Our printers work with every
popular PC With more leading software programs. And with more forms handlers to make
paperwork a snap.

So no matter what your printing needs - and no matter what size your budget— NEC has
a printer for you. Our full line of Spinwriter® printers, for low to high speed letter quality printing.
And our versatile Pinwriter™ and Color Pinwriter printers, for high resolution dot matrix printing.

To find out more about NEC printers, call 1-800-343-4418 (in Mass. 617-264-8635).
Or write: NEC Information Systems, Department 1610,
1414 Massachusetts Ave., Boxborough, MA 01719.

NEC PRINTERS.THEYONLY STOP WHEN YOU WANTTHEMTO.

C*C

Computers and Communications

Spinwriter is a registered trademark of NEC Corporation. Pinwriter is a trademark of NEC Corporation.

NEC

NEC Information Systems, Inc.

Inquiry 241

The New

Tandy 3000

The difference is power
♦ ♦♦and affordability*

Introducing the Tandy 3000, the
affordable alternative to the IBM®
PC/AT. Here's the power you need
to manage your business, to net-
work computers, or to create
a multiuser system.

Unmatched Compatibility

The Tandy 3000 uses the ad-
vanced MS-DOS 3.1 operating sys-
tem. And since the Tandy 3000 is
compatible with programs designed
for the PC/AT, as well as the PC/XT,
it cuts through today's software con-
fusion. Choose from thousands of
powerful applications.

Power to Share

The Tandy 3000 is designed to
use the forthcoming XENIX 5.0
multiuser operating system. Two to
six people in an office can use the

3000 simultaneously with
low-cost data terminals.

Network Readiness

In offices already equipped with
MS-DOS computers, the Tandy
3000 is the link that brings them all
together. Using our ViaNet local
area network, the Tandy 30()0's
high-speed throughput is available
to all network users.

High-Performance Design

The Tandy 3000 (25-4001, $2599)
features an Intel® 80286 micropro-
cessor that operates at twice the
speed of the industry standard,
512K main memory (expandable to
640K on the main board), a high-
capacity 5 1 /*" floppy disk drive, a
serial/parallel adapter and ten ex-
pansion slots.

For maximum storage capacity,
choose the Tandv 3000 HD
(25-4010, $3599] with a built-in 20-
megabyte hard disk drive.

Tandy . . . Clearly Superior™

High performance, compatibility,
multiuser and networking capabili-
ties, and remarkable expandability:
the Tandy 3000 has the power to
put you in command.

Available at over 1200

Radio Shack Computer Centers and at

participating Radio Shack stores and dealers.

Radio /hack

COMPUTER CENTERS

A DIVISION OF TANDY CORPORATION
Inquiry 278

Prices apply at Radio Shack Computer Centers and at participating stores and dealers. Monitor and MS-DOS sold separately. IBM/Registered TM International Business Machines Corp. MS and XENIX/TM Microsoft Corp. ViaNet/TM VIANETIX.